Barbarous Mexico [Excerpt] by John Kenneth Turner
From Barbarous Mexico by John Kenneth Turner (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr
& Company, 1910), pp. 120 137, passim.
The slavery and peonage of Mexico, the poverty and illiteracy, the
general prostration of the people, are due, in my humble judgment, to the
financial and political organization that at present rules that
country--in a word, to what I shall call the "system" of General
Porfirio Diaz.
That these conditions can be traced in a measure to the history of
Mexico during past generations, is true. I do not wish to be unfair to
General Diaz in the least degree. The Spanish Dons made slaves and peons of
the Mexican people. Yet never did they grind the people as they are ground
today. In Spanish times the peon at least had his own little patch of ground,
his own humble shelter; today he has nothing. Moreover, the Declaration of
Independence, proclaimed just one hundred years ago, in 1810, proclaimed also
the abolition of chattel slavery. Slavery was abolished, though not entirely.
Succeeding Mexican governments of class and of church and of the individual
held the people in bondage little less severe. But finally came a democratic
movement which broke the back of the church, which overthrew the rule of
caste, which adopted a form of government as modern as our own, which freed
the slave in fact as well as in name, which gave the lands of the people back
to the people, which wiped the slate clean of the blood of the past.
***
It was under Porfirio Diaz that slavery and peonage were reestablished
in Mexico, and on a more merciless basis than they had existed even under
the Spanish Dons. Therefore, I can see no injustice in charging at least a
preponderance of the blame for these conditions upon the system of Diaz.
I say the "system of Diaz" rather than Diaz personally because, though
he is the keystone of the arch, though he is the government of Mexico more
completely than is any other individual the government of any large country
on the planet, yet no one man can stand alone in his iniquity. Diaz is the
central prop of the slavery, but there are other props without which the
system could not continue upright for a single day. For example, there is the
collection of commercial interests which profit by the Diaz system of slavery
and autocracy, and which puts no insignificant part of its tremendous powers
to holding the central prop upright in exchange for the special privileges
that it receives. Not the least among these commercial interests are American,
which, I blush to say, are quite as aggressive defenders of the Diaz citadel
as any. Indeed . . . these American interests undoubtedly form the determining
force of the continuation of Mexican slavery. Thus does Mexican slavery come
home to us in the full sense of the term.
***
In order that the reader may understand the Diaz system and
its responsibility in the degradation of the Mexican people, it will
be well to go back and trace briefly the beginnings of that system.
Mexico is spoken of throughout the world as a Republic. That is
because it was once a Republic and still pretends to be one. Mexico
has a constitution which has never been repealed, a constitution
said to be modeled after our own, and one which is, indeed, like
ours in the main. Like ours, it provides for a national congress, state
legislatures and municipal aldermen to make the laws, federal, state
and local judges to interpret them, and a president, governors and
local executives to administer them. Like ours, it provides for manhood
suffrage, freedom of the press and of speech, equality before
the law, and the other guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness which we ourselves enjoy, in a degree, as a matter of
course.
Such was Mexico forty years ago. Forty years ago Mexico was at
peace with the world. She had just overthrown, after a heroic war,
the foreign prince, Maximilian, who had been seated as emperor by
the armies of Napoleon Third of France. Her president, Benito
Juarez, is today recognized in Mexico and out of Mexico as one of
the most able as well as unselfish patriots of Mexican history. Never
since Cortez fired his ships there on the gulf coast had Mexico enjoyed such
prospects of political freedom, industrial prosperity and general advancement.
But in spite of these facts, and the additional fact that he was
deeply indebted to Juarez, all his military promotions having been
received at the hands of the latter, General Porfirio Diaz stirred up
a series of rebellions for the purpose of securing for himself the
supreme power of the land. Diaz not only led one armed rebellion
against a peaceable, constitutional and popularly approved government, but he
led three of them. For nine years he plotted as a common rebel. The support
that he received came chiefly from bandits, criminals and professional
soldiers who were disgruntled at the antimilitarist policy which Juarez had
inaugurated and which, if he could have carried it out a little farther,
would have been effective in preventing military revolutions in the future--
and from the Catholic church.
***
In defiance of the will of the majority of the people of Mexico,
General Diaz, thirty-four years ago, came to the head of government. In
defiance of the will of the majority of the people he has remained there ever
since--except for four years, from 1880 to 1884, when he turned the palace
over to an intimate friend, Manuel Gonzalez, on the distinct understanding
that at the end of the four years Gonzalez would turn it back to him again.
Since no man can rule an unwilling people without taking away
the liberties of that people, it can be very easily understood what
sort of regime General Diaz found it necessary to establish in order
to make his power secure. By the use of the army and the police
powers generally, he controlled elections, the press and public
speech and made of popular government a farce. By distributing
the public offices among his generals and granting them free rein
to plunder at will, he assured himself of the continued use of the
army. By making political combinations with men high in the esteem of the
Catholic church and permitting it to be whispered about that the church was
to regain some of its former powers, he gained the silent support of the
priests and the Pope. By promising full payment of all foreign debts and
launching at once upon a policy of distributing favors among citizens of
other countries, he made his peace with the world at large.
***
Take, for example, Diaz's method of rewarding his military chiefs,
the men who helped him overthrow the government of Lerdo. As
quickly as possible after assuming the power, he installed his generals as
governors of the various states and organized them and other influential
figures in the nation into a national plunderbund. Thus he assured himself of
the continued loyalty of the generals, on the one hand, and put them where he
could most effectively use them for keeping down the people, on the other. One
variety of rich plum which he handed out in those early days to his governors
came in the form of charters giving his governors the right, as individuals,
to organize companies and build railroads, each charter carrying with it a
huge sum as a railroad subsidy.
The national government paid for the road and then the governor
and his most influential friends owned it. Usually the railroads were
ridiculous affairs, were of narrow-gauge and of the very cheapest
materials, but the subsidy was very large, sufficient to build the road
and probably equip it besides. During his first term of four years in
office Diaz passed sixty-one railroad subsidy acts containing appropriations
aggregating $40,000,000, and all but two or three of these acts were in favor
of governors of states. In a number of cases not a mile of railroad was
actually built, but the subsidies are supposed to have been paid, anyhow. In
nearly every case the subsidy was the same, $12,880 per mile in Mexican
silver, and in those days Mexican silver was nearly on a par with gold.
This huge sum was taken out of the national treasury and was
supposedly paid to the governors, although Mexican politicians of
the old times have assured me that it was divided, a part going out
as actual subsidies and a part going directly into the hands of Diaz
to be used in building up his machine in other quarters.
Certainly something more than mere loyalty, however invaluable
it was, was required of the governors in exchange for such rich
financial plums. It is a well authenticated fact that governors were
required to pay a fixed sum annually for the privilege of exploiting
to the limit the graft possibilities of their offices. For a long time
Manuel Romero Rubio, father-in-law of Diaz, was the collector of
these perquisites, the offices bringing in anywhere from $10,000 to
$50,000 per year.
The largest single perquisite whereby Diaz enriched himself, the
members of his immediate family, his friends, his governors, his
financial ring and his foreign favorites, was found for a long time
in the confiscation of the lands of the common people--a confiscation, in
fact, which is going on to this day. Note that this land robbery was the
first direct step in the path of the Mexican people back to their bondage as
slaves and peons.
. . . The lands of the Yaquis of Sonora were taken from them
and given to political favorites of the ruler. The lands of the Mayas
of Yucatan, now enslaved by the henequen planters, were taken
from them in almost the same manner. The final act in this confiscation was
accomplished in the year 1904, when the national government set aside the
last of their lands into a territory called Quintana Roo. This territory
contains 43,000 square kilometers or 27,000 square miles. It is larger than
the present state of Yucatan by 8,000 square kilometers, and moreover is the
most promising land of the entire peninsula. Separated from the island of
Cuba by a narrow strait, its soil and climate are strikingly similar to those
of Cuba and experts have declared that there is no reason why Quintana Roo
should not one day become as great a tobacco-growing country as
Cuba. Further than that, its hillsides are thickly covered with the
most valuable cabinet and dyewoods in the world. It is this magnificent
country which, as the last chapter in the life of the Mayas as
a nation, the Diaz government took and handed over to eight Mexican
politicians.
In like manner have the Mayos of Sonora, the Papagos, the Tomosachics--
in fact, practically all the native peoples of Mexico--been reduced to
peonage, if not to slavery. Small holders of every tribe and nation have
gradually been expropriated until today their number is almost down to
zero. Their lands are in the hands of the governmental machine, or persons
to whom the members of the machine have sold for profit--or in the hands
of foreigners.
This is why the typical Mexican farm is the million-acre farm, why it has
been so easy for such Americans as William Randolph Hearst, Harrison Gray
Otis, E. H. Harriman, the Rockefellers, the Guggenheims and numerous others
each to have obtained possession of millions of Mexican acres. This is why
Secretary of Fomento Molina holds more than 15,000,000 acres of the soil of
Mexico, why ex-Governor Terrazas, of Chihuahua, owns 15,000,000 acres of the
soil of that state, why Finance Minister Limantour, Mrs. Porfirio Diaz,
Vice-President Corral, Governor Pimentel, of Chiapas, Governor Landa y
Escandon of the Federal District, Governor Pablo Escandon of Morelos,
Governor Ahumada of Jalisco, Governor
Cosio of Queretaro, Governor Mercado of Michoacan, Governor Canedo of Sinaloa,
Governor Cahuantzi of Tlaxcala, and many other members of the Diaz machine
are not only millionaires, but they are millionaires in Mexican real estate.
Chief among the methods used in getting the lands away from the people
in general was through a land registration law which Diaz fathered. This law
permitted any person to go out and claim any lands to which the possessor
could not prove a recorded title. Since up to the time the law was enacted
it was not the custom to record titles, this meant all the lands of Mexico.
When a man possessed a home which his father had possessed before him, and
which his grandfather had possessed, which his great-grandfather had
possessed, and which had been in the family as far back as history knew; then
he considered that he owned that home, all of his neighbors considered that
he owned it, and all governments up to that of Diaz recognized his right to
that home.
Supposing that a strict registration law became necessary in the course
of evolution, had this law been enacted for the purpose of protecting the
land owners instead of plundering them the government would, naturally, have
sent agents through the country to apprise the people of the new law and to
help them register their property and keep their homes. But this was not done
and the conclusion is inevitable that the law was passed for the purpose of
plundering.
At all events, the result of the law was a plundering. No sooner had it
been passed than the aforesaid members of the governmental machine, headed by
the father-in-law of Diaz, and Diaz himself, formed land companies and sent
out agents, not to help the people keep their lands, but to select the most
desirable lands in the country, register them, and evict the owners. This
they did on a most tremendous scale. Thus hundreds of thousands of small
farmers lost their property. Thus small farmers are still losing their
property.
***
Another favorite means of confiscating the homes of small owners is
found in the juggling of state taxes. State taxes in Mexico are fearfully and
wonderfully made. Especially in the less populous districts owners are taxed
inversely as they stand in favor with the personality who represents the
government in their particular district. No court, board or other responsible
body sits to review unjust assessments. The jefe politico may charge one
farmer five times as much per acre as he charges the farmer across the fence,
and yet Farmer No. 1 has no redress unless he is rich and powerful. He must
pay, and if he cannot, the farm is a little later listed among the properties
of the jefe politico, or one of the members of his family, or among the
properties of the governor of the state or one of the members of his family.
But if he is rich and powerful he is often not taxed at all. American
promoters in Mexico escape taxation so nearly invariably that the impression
has got abroad in this country that land pays no taxes in Mexico. Even
Frederick Palmer made a statement to this effect in his recent writings about
that country.
Of course such bandit methods as were employed and are still employed
were certain to meet with resistance, and so we find numerous instances of
regiments of soldiers being called out to enforce collection of taxes or the
eviction of time-honored land-holders.
***
Hardly a month passes today without there being one or more
reports in Mexican papers of disturbances, the result of confiscation of
homes, either through the denunciation method or the excuse of nonpayment of
taxes.
***
Graft is an established institution in the public offices of Mexico.
It is a right vested in the office itself, is recognized as such, and is
respectable. There are two main functions attached to each public office, one
a privilege, the other a duty. The privilege is that of using the special
powers of the office for the amassing of a personal fortune; the duty is
that of preventing the people from entering into any activities that may
endanger the stability of the existing regime. Theoretically, the fulfillment
of the duty is judged as balancing the harvest of the privilege, but with all
offices and all places this is not so, and so we find offices of particularly
rosy possibilities selling for a fixed price. Examples are those of the jefes
politicos in districts where the slave trade is peculiarly remunerative, as
at Pachuca, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Orizaba, Cordoba and Rio Blanco; of the
districts in which the drafting of soldiers for the army is especially let to
the jefes politicos; of the towns in which the gambling privileges are let as
a monopoly to the mayors thereof; of the states in which there exist
opportunities extraordinary for governors to graft off the army supply
contracts.
Monopolies called "concessions," which are nothing more nor less
than trusts created by governmental decree, are dealt in openly by
the Mexican government. Some of these concessions are sold for
cash, but the rule is to give them away gratis or for a nominal price,
the real price being collected in political support. The public domain is
sold in huge tracts for a nominal price or for nothing at all, the money
price, when paid at all, averaging about fifty Mexican centavos an acre.
But never does the government sell to any individual or company not of its
own special choice; that is, the public domain is by no means open to all
comers on equal terms. Public concessions worth millions of dollars-to use
the water of a river for irrigation purposes, or for power, to engage in this
or that monopoly, have been given away, but not indiscriminately. These
things are the coin with which political support is bought and as
such are grafts, pure and simple.
Public action of any sort is never taken for the sake of improving the
condition of the common people. It is taken with a view to making the
government more secure in its position. Mexico is a land of special
privileges extraordinary, though frequently special privileges are provided
for in the name of the common people. An instance is that of the
"Agricultural Bank," which was created in 1908. To read the press reports
concerning the purpose of this bank one would imagine that the government had
launched into a gigantic and benevolent scheme to re-establish its
expropriated people in agriculture. The purpose, it was said, was to loan
money to needy farmers. But nothing could be farther from the truth, for the
purpose is to help out the rich farmer, and only the richest in the land.
The bank has now been loaning money for two years, but so far not a single
case has been recorded in which aid was given to help a farm that comprised
less than thousands of acres. Millions have been loaned on private irrigation
projects, but never in lumps of less than several tens of thousands. In the
United States the farmer class is an humble class indeed; in Mexico the
typical farmer is the king of millionaires, a little potentate. In Mexico,
because of the special privileges given by the government, medievalism still
prevails outside the cities. The barons are richer and more powerful
than were the landed aristocrats before the French Revolution, and the
canaille poorer, more miserable.
And the special financial privileges centering in the cities are no
less remarkable than the special privileges given to the exploiters of
the hacienda slave. There is a financial ring consisting of members
of the Diaz machine and their close associates, who pluck all the
financial plums of the "republic," who get the contracts, the franchises and
the concessions, and whom the large aggregations of foreign capital which
secure a footing in the country find it necessary to take as coupon-clipping
partners. The "Banco National," an institution having some fifty-four
branches and which has been compared flatteringly to the Bank of England, is
the special financial vehicle of the government camarilla. It monopolizes the
major portion of the banking business of the country and is a convenient
cloak for the larger grafts, such as the railway merger, the true
significance of which I shall present in a future chapter.
Diaz encourages foreign capital, for foreign capital means the
support of foreign governments. American capital has a smoother
time with Diaz than it has even with its own government, which is
very fine from the point of view of American capital, but not so
good from the point of view of the Mexican people. Diaz has even
entered into direct partnership with certain aggregations of foreign
capital, granting these aggregations special privileges in some lines
which he has refused to his own millionaires. These foreign partnerships
which Diaz has formed has made his government international insofar as the
props which support his system are concerned. The certainty of foreign
intervention in his favor has been one of the powerful forces which have
prevented the Mexican people from using arms to remove a ruler who imposed
himself upon them by the use of arms.
When I come to deal with the American partners of Diaz I mention
those of no other nationality in the same breath, but it will be
well to bear in mind that England, especially, is nearly as heavily
as interested in Mexico as is the United States. While this country
has $900,000,000 (these are the figures given by Consul General
Shanklin about the first of the year 1910) invested in Mexico, England
(according to the South American Journal) has $750,000,000.
However, these figures by no means represent the ratio between the
degree of political influence exerted by the two countries. There the
United States bests all the other countries combined.
***
In this chapter I have attempted to give the reader an idea of the means
which General Diaz employed to attract support to his government. To
sum up, by means of a careful placing of public offices, public contracts
and special privileges of multitudinous sorts, Diaz absorbed all of the
more powerful men and interests within his sphere and made them a part
of his machine. Gradually the country passed into the hands of his
office holders, their friends, and foreigners. And for this the people paid,
not only with their lands, but with their flesh and blood. They paid in
peonage and slavery. For this they forfeited liberty, democracy and the
blessings of progress.