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oancrort Liorary 
 DEC C 1919 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY 
 AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 St/ ARTHUR THOMSON 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/conspiracyagainsOOthomrich 
 
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 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST 
 MEXICO 
 
 my ARTHUR THOMSON 
 
 That there is a conspiracy against Mexico is plainly evident to 
 all who even in a very superficial manner have studied the facts. The 
 cry of Wall Street and its kept press is for intervention by the United 
 States and subsequent annexation to this country. The American 
 financial powers are unanimous in demanding that the "unsettled 
 state of affairs below the Rio Grande cease." Their representatives 
 in Congress have voiced their opinions in no uncertain terms that 
 intervention is necessary if American Big Business is to survive in 
 Mexico. British oil and other interests are likewise of an opinion 
 that United States troops must go into Mexico and clean up things 
 so as to make it safe for Capital. The American oil octopus in Mexico 
 has been plotting for some time and is still at it. 
 
 Now what are the facts concerning Mexico? Is it governed by 
 bandits, as one paper says, and "devastated by the clashing interests 
 of a half-dozen cut-throat leaders?" Are the people too ignorant and 
 incapable of self-rule? Was the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz a bless- 
 ing in disguise for the peons and a necessity under the circumstances? 
 Is it necessary for the United States to intervene and either establish 
 a "real government" or else annex the country? These are questions 
 which are frequently discussed and which we propose to answer 
 according to the facts made known by unbiased, truth-loving investi- 
 gators and not according to the "facts" of petroleum-smelling and 
 other propagandists with an axe to grind. 
 
 So that we may properly understand the events of recent years in 
 Mexico, let us go back one hundred years or so to the time when 
 Mexico, or Nueva Espana, as it was then known, was ruled by Spain. 
 
 MEXICO ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 
 
 Prior to its independence Mexico was ruled for three hundred 
 years by Spain. "Society," say the writers of one book, "was divided 
 into three strata. At the top stood the privileged Spanish class of big 
 land-owners, comprising the Church and Aristocracy. This class 
 dominated the entire life of the country, and used the government 
 and army merely as a means to m.aintain their supremacy. Far below 
 tltQm lao^ the small and insignificant middle class ofi mixed Spanish 
 
4 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 and native Wood — ^the intellectuals, petty professionals, and merchants, 
 who craM'led at the feet of the wealthy in the ever-present fear of 
 
 being trampled upon and flung into the common servitude 
 
 Far below the middle class again, and in the deepest misery and 
 degradation, were the toilers of the soil — the natives, Aztecs, Toltecs, 
 Mayas, and other allied races — immensely outnumbering the two 
 other classes, but powerless in their ignorance and disorganization." 
 ("The Mexican People — ^their struggle for Freedom," by L. Gutierrez 
 De Lara & Edgcumb Pinchon.) 
 
 The land was in the hands of a very few. The Church of Rome 
 was the greatest land-owner, with the Spanish landed aristocracy next. 
 Bancroft in his "History of Mexico," vol. 13, p. 704, says the clergy 
 "made the natives toil for them without payment." There were no 
 schools for the peons. If ill "there were for them but two or three 
 miserable hospitals in all Mexico, and in these they did but only die 
 of starvation and mistreatment." 
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 "By the year 1808 conditions in colonial Mexico had become so 
 intolerable for the great mass of people that revolutionary symptoms 
 began to appear simultaneously in all parts of the country" ("Mexican 
 People"). On September 15, 1810, revolution broke out in Dolores, 
 State of Guanajuato, headed by the revolutionary priest Miguel 
 Hidalgo. It was "essentially an agrarian revolution." For the peons 
 it was a struggle for the ownership of the land and not merely for 
 political change. As far as the peons were concerned the revolution 
 failed. The trinity of privilege in Mexico — the Church, Army and 
 Aristocracy — succeeded in sidetracking the agrarian revolution of the 
 toilers of the soil and making of it one for mere political change. 
 After ten years struggle Independence from Spain was accomplished, 
 but instead of it being Independence and the Land, for which the 
 peorts under Hidalgo and Mcrelos had struggled, it became Independ- 
 ence and Privilege. The trinity of privilege still held the reins of 
 power, and "In the fields toiled the peons, still tilling the land from 
 dawn till dusk, under the lash of the master, still enduring the pangs 
 of hunger and the darkness of ignorance — and now, sunk in unspeak- 
 able despair before the wreck of all their high hopes." 
 
 "The Monitor," official organ of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, 
 in its issue of August 23, 1919, says: "Mexico has never been a real 
 republic or enjoyed democratic institutions since the overthrow of 
 the Spanish Government at the beginning of last century. It has 
 experienced revolution after revolution and government by bandits 
 during the last one hundred years. The only times of stable govern- 
 ment were when autocrats like Diaz ruled with a rod of iron and 
 kept the bandits down." 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 5 
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH INTRIGUES 
 
 Yes, for the last one hundred years Mexico has experienced revolu- 
 tion after revolution, but why? This organ of the Catholic Church 
 neglected to tell its readers the part played by the clergy during that 
 period. Nothing is said about the clerical intrigues for the establish- 
 ment of a monarchy, after the war with the United States, the bringing 
 about of which the Church played a leading part in Mexico. The 
 intrigues of the Catholic Church in Mexico were also largely respons- 
 ible for the Texas war in 1835. If the hand of the Church had been 
 kept off the revolution in 1810 Mexico would probably not have "ex- 
 perienced revolution after revolution during the last one hundred 
 years." Study Mexican history for the last century and you will find 
 the Catholic Church intriguing to establish a monarchy with Lucas 
 Alaman, the "man of the black brains," as the leader of the con- 
 spiracy. You will find the clergy inviting foreign Intervention in order 
 to hold their power over the peons. The French intervention of 1861- 
 65 was partly on behalf of the Catholic Church. You will also find 
 the clergy preaching sedition, intriguing in all manners to keep their 
 power over the peons and to maintain the privileges of the Church, 
 making and unmaking governments, and ever siding with the ex- 
 ploiters and oppressors of the working people, "Out of the cloisters 
 sprang ail the cuartelazos which had flayed the common people; out 
 of the cloisters sprang all the misery and poverty of the common 
 people, their degradation and national disgrace." 
 
 The recent revolution in Mexico, 1910-14, was, as In the case of 
 the Revolution of Independence, an agrarian revolution. The demo- 
 cratization of the land was its central purpose. In the recent revolu- 
 tion the peons called themselves Constitutionalists, that is, their plan 
 was to restore the Constitution of 1857. This is one of the most dem- 
 ocratic constitutions ever estabished in any country. It meant the 
 emancipation of the peons and tha end of exploitation and oppression 
 of the Mexican toilers. A reading of its articles leaves one with a 
 realization that those responsible for its formulation were anything 
 but "ignorant Indians incapable of self-government." Under Juarez 
 this constitution was put into effect as fully as possible with an in- 
 triguing Church and other interests, both domestic and foreign, to 
 contend with. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF 1857 
 
 "The Constitution of 1857 is the exact expresston of the aspira- 
 tions of the Mexican people as distinguished from the Church, Army, 
 and Aristocracy ... It is the first Constitution of the People, the 
 first expression of a pure democracy — as opposed to a bogus democ- 
 racy, the first national enunciator of the principle that the foundation 
 of all social institutions is the Rights of Man — as directly and unalter- 
 ably opposed to the Rights of Property." (Mexican People.) 
 
 In the first article of the Constitution the rights of man are set 
 forth as the foundation of social institutions: "The Mexican people 
 
6 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 recognize that the rights of men are the foundation and the purpose 
 of social institutions. In consequence they proclaim that all the laws 
 and authorities of the country must respect and sustain the warranties 
 stipulated by this Constitution." 
 
 "In the Republic everyone is born free" — so reads the second 
 article. — "The slaves who step into the national territory recover their 
 liberty by this mere fact, and have the right of the protection of the 
 law." 
 
 In Mexico at this time serfdom prevailed, and this article was 
 framed to abolish serfdom and free the serfs who were virtually con- 
 sidered as property of the estates. 
 
 The second part of the article referred to the fugitive slaves from 
 the United States. You will recall that chattel slavery prevailed at 
 that time in the superior and enlightened Southern States, and this 
 article was framed to grant freedom to the slaves who dared flee from 
 their beneficent masters. 
 
 The third article declares all education to be free. Later it was 
 amplified to make education "universal, free, non-sectarian, and com- 
 pulsory." "The Catholic schools of Mexico were sorry institutions, 
 and even such rudimentary education as they gave was restricted to 
 the rich. For the poor there was nothing but the most complete 
 illiteracy." 
 
 Article 4 reads: "Every man is free to adopt the profession, trade, 
 or work that suits him, it being useful and honest; and to enjoy the 
 product thereof . . , ." 
 
 This article was framed with the view to breaking the bonds of 
 peonage and recognizing the "right of the people to the enjoyment of 
 the full product of their labor." 
 
 So terrible had been the experiences of the peons at the hands 
 of their masters that the Constitution of 1857 was framed with the 
 purpose of making impossible a repetition of those bitter experiences, 
 and each article was written with the purpose of abolishing some evil 
 that cursed the country or declaring some principle or right to be 
 necessary to a just social order. In the fifth article we read: "No man 
 shall be compelled to work without his plain consent and without just 
 compensation. The state will not permit to become effective any 
 contract, pact or agreement with the purpose of the curtailment, the 
 loss, or the irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of any man, may the 
 cause be for personal labor, education, or religious vows. The law 
 in consequence does not recognize monastic orders, and will not permit 
 their establishment, no matter what may be the denomination or pur- 
 pose lor. which they pretend to be established. Neither will be per- 
 mitted a contract or agreement by which a man makes a pact for his 
 proscription or exile." 
 
 "The monastic orders were suppressed (because bitter experience 
 had proved them to be an unmitigated evil, the breeding grounds of 
 sedition, oppression, exploitation, and social depravity. The basic 
 immorality of a parasitic life further undermined their common integ- 
 rity and it was a normal consequence that the parasite and sexual 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 7 
 
 pervert should become the traitor and the intriguer." ("Mexican 
 People.") 
 
 The right of free speech and press was established by articles 
 6 and 7. "The liberty of writing and publishing writings upon any 
 matter in inviolable. No previous censorship nor imposition of bonds 
 upon the writers nor the publishers for the purpose of curtailing the 
 freedom of the press can be established by any law or authority, such 
 freedom being restricted to respect of private life, morals, and public 
 business." (Article 7.) 
 
 Article 13 reads: "In the Mexican Republic no one shall be sub- 
 jected to private laws nor special courts. No man or corporation shall 
 enjoy fueros nor receive emoluments unless they be a compensation 
 for public services and already fixed by law." 
 
 In Mexico at that time the ecclesiastical and military authorities 
 considered themselves immune from the civil law — and they acted 
 accordingly. For forty-seven years previous to this time ecclesiastical 
 and military fueros had cursed the country — hence this article abol- 
 ishing them. 
 
 "No man shall receive emoluments," was written in this article in 
 order to abolish the rents, tributes, tithings, and taxes which the clergy 
 received from the poor and "also the universal practice of the clergy 
 of extorting the last ceatavo from the dying peon and his superstitious 
 relatives under threat of the law, and the still more terrifying threat 
 of refusing the last unction." 
 
 By Article 27 the vast illicit holdings of the Church were put at 
 the disposal of the people: "... Religious corporations and institu- 
 tions, no matter of what denomination, character, durability, or pur- 
 pose, and civil corporations when under the patronage, direction, or 
 superintendency of religious institutions, or ministers of any cult, 
 shall not have the legal capacity to acquire or manage any real estate 
 except the buildings which are used immediately and directly for the 
 services of the said institutions; neither will the law recognize any 
 mortgage on any property held by these mstitutions." 
 
 Article 28 reads: "State and Church are independent. Congress 
 cannot make any law establishing or forbidding any religion. ..." 
 
 PRIVILEGE AND THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 "From the moment when this Constitution was proclaimed the 
 peons began to take full advantage of it" — and the Church and Army 
 began to fight it. According to the Catholic historian Zamacois, "The 
 Archbishop of Mexico, Don Lazaro de la Garza, announced in circulars 
 sent to the bishops a few days after the order for the taking of the 
 oath (Secretary of the Interior's order to all government employees 
 
8 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 to take the oath of obedience) had been given, that since the articles 
 of this Constitution were inimical to the institution, doctrine, and rites 
 of the Catholic Church neither the cler3:ymen nor laymen could take 
 this oath under any pretext whatever . In view of this communication 
 the bishops of all the dioceses sent circulars to their respeciive country 
 vicars and the parish curates, and to the other ecclesiastics, inform- 
 ing them. First: That it was not lawful to swear allegiance to the 
 Constitution because its articles were contrary to the institution, 
 doctrine and rites of the Catholic Church. Second: That this com- 
 munication must be made public, and copies of it distributed as widely 
 as possible; and that they must notify the government of their action." 
 (Zamacois, "Historia de Mejico.") 
 
 "To a devoutly Catholic population these orders were disturbing 
 enough. Torn between their opposing political and religious beliefs, 
 they hesitated and fell into the utmost confusion. Even so, political 
 good sense undoubtedly would have won the day in the teeth of the 
 Church had not a tremendous mandate come to them from the Pope 
 of Rome, the vicar of Christ on earth, to disobey utterly and com- 
 pletely all the commands of the impious Liberal government " 
 
 ("Mexican People"). This long document from Pope Pius IX con- 
 cludes as follows: "Thus we make known to the faith in Mexico, and 
 to the Catholic universe, that we energetically condemn every decree 
 that the Mexican Government has enacted against the Catholic re- 
 ligion, against the Church, and her sacred ministers and pastors, 
 against her laws, rights, and property, and also against the authority 
 of this Holy See. We raise our Pontifical Voice with apostolic freedom 
 before you to condemn, reprove, and declare null, void, and without 
 any value, the said decrees, and all others which have been enacted 
 by the civil authorities in such contempt of the ecclesiastical author- 
 ity of this Holy See, and with such injury to the religion, to the sacred 
 pastors, and illustrious men. For this we command that those who 
 have contributed to the fulfillment of the said decrees by action, ad- 
 vice, or command shall seriously meditate upon the penalties and 
 censures imposed by the apostolic constitutions, and by the canons 
 of the councils against the violators of sacred persons and things, 
 against the violators of the ecclesiastical liberty and power, and 
 against the usurpers of the rights of this Holy See." ("Mexico a traves 
 de los Siglos," vol. 5, p. 226.) 
 
 "The papal mandate fell like a bomb upon the people of Mexico." 
 "The Pope's mandate, as we have seen, was no half-hearted affair. On 
 the contrary it condemned to destruction the whole glorious edifice 
 of human liberty reared at the cost of such tremendous sacrifice in 
 the Constitution of 1857." 
 
 The Constitution took effect on Sept. 16, 1857, and the "next day 
 Felix Zuloaga, the commander-in-chief of the army, headed a powerful 
 cuartelazo against the government, proclaiming that the constitution 
 was not acceptable to the nation, and that it was therefore abrogated. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 9 
 
 ..." The fight against the government forces raged for two days 
 in Mexico City. "Then, as in the revolt of 1847, the friars patrolled 
 the trenches of the revolting soldiery, exciting them to the fight; then, 
 as in that other epoch, the clergy paid the wages of the troops, and 
 their agents were bribing the officers of the government that swelled 
 the ranks of the enemy. The city was deserted ; at night time the onlj'- 
 light was the blaze of the artillery fire and the sinister flashing of 
 the bombs; in every street there were ^breastworks, and from every 
 door came forth the groans of the dying and the moans oC the 
 wounded." (Gustavo Baz, "Vida de Juarez.") 
 
 "The reaction was victorious in the capital, and the wickedness of 
 one man and the ambitions of others had provoked a civil war that 
 was destined to last until the extermJnation of one of the contending 
 factions. The joyous clamoring of the bells, the majestic music of 
 the Te Deum, the rejoicing of the Clericals everywhere, and the 
 drunkenness of the soldiery, welcomed that \ictory of fraud, ambition, 
 and reaction . . . ." (Gustavo Baz.) 
 
 Shortly after this, however, Benito Juarez, the representative of 
 the people as against the forces of reaction and privilege, was recog- 
 nized by Congress as lawful President, he having been President of 
 the Supreme Court and Vice-President of the Republic. 
 
 Now began again the struggle between the trinity of privilege and 
 the masses; oppressor against oppressed. "On one side were the revo- 
 lutionists . armed with ihe. buckler of legal power and ready to shed 
 their blood for freedom of thought and speech, for the suppression of 
 the monasteries, the confiscation of the ecclesiastical estates, the sup- 
 port of the civil power as the only recognized authority in society, and 
 for the upholding of the complete equality of men and liberty and civil- 
 ization of the Republic. On the other side were the Clergy and the 
 Army toanded together to re-establish a government born of treason 
 and mutiny, to re-enforce all the abuses that were left as a legacy to 
 Mexico by the colonial regime, and to proclaim as invulnerable and 
 divine rights the rule of the clergy, the army fueros, and the inviola- 
 bility of the Church estates, and damning as heresy the freedom of 
 conscience and the equality of men. 
 
 "The revolution was a genuine social revolution; it was a struggle 
 to overthrow many years of deeply entrenched interests, three cen- 
 turies of prejudice, and ideas as old as the world, as old as fanaticism 
 and liberty. The programme of the one element was to destroy in 
 order to create; the programme of the other to conserve in order to 
 destroy." (Gustavo Baz, "Vida de Juarez.") 
 
 In 1861 the Constitutionalist Army entered Mexico City and on 
 January 11th of that year Juarez and his cabinet re-established con- 
 stitutional rule in Mexico. And this in spite of papal bulls and ex- 
 communications by the clergy! 
 
10 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 But this young democracy was a challenge to the capitalisnn of 
 the world — It had to be destroyed! 
 
 "On the 11th of June, 1861, Juarez was proclaimed constitutional 
 President of Mexico, and on the 31st of October of the same year, 
 France, England and Spain signed a contract in London pledging 
 themselves to a joint invasion of Mexico for the purpose of over- 
 throwing the constitutional government, and establishing in its place 
 a monarchy, supported by bayonets." ("Mexican People.") 
 
 "On the 2nd of January, 1862, the fleets of the three allies entered 
 the harbor of Vera Cruz." Finally, after Juarez had officially recog- 
 nized the financial claims against Mexico by the allies, England and 
 Spain withdrew from the intervention, but the French remained. 
 Maximilian, an Austrian prince, was offered the emperorship of Mexico 
 by Napoleon III of France, and on Decemlber 12, 1864, he entered 
 Mexico City. 
 
 After playing into the hands of the trinity of privilege Maximilian 
 was imprisoned and later shot on May 19, 1867. And on July 15, 1867, 
 President Juarez, with his cabinet, entered Mexico City. Intervention 
 was at an end, and now began the work of reconstruction. 
 
 PORFIRIO DIAZ— THE DESPOILER 
 
 Many eulogists of Porfirio Diaz and his system have sought to 
 make the people of America believe that . Diaz was the "Maker of 
 Mexico," and the strong man needed to keep an ignorant Indian popu- 
 lation in order. Under Diaz, they say, the country was at peace, the 
 bandits were kept down, capital was safe, and the country prospered. 
 Yes, but at what a price! Capitalism is materialism, and these wor- 
 shipers at the shrine of mammon never for a moment consider the 
 human side of the picture. Far from being the maker of Mexico, Diaz 
 was its Despoiler. Under Diaz and his upholders, the same old trinity 
 of privilege we have seen before, together with foreign speculators 
 and concessionists, slavery thrived, and conditions for the peons were 
 perhaps more intolerable than during the colonial period with its 
 Inquisition and other horrors. But the country prospered, we are told! 
 Capital was safe, and foreigners did not have to keep awake nights 
 fearing that the coming of dawn would find them dispossessed. Now, 
 let us look at the other side of the picture and see the condition of 
 the toilers under this most beneficent regime of Porfirio Diaz. 
 
 After the Ayutla Revolution, which broke out in 1854, and which 
 gave to Mexico the Constitution of 1857, many of the peons became 
 independent farmers. During the agrarian democracy of 1867-76, a 
 million peons became farmers upon their own land. Education was 
 fostered. The building of the national railroads was started. Juarez 
 "aimed at the national construction, ownership, and operation of all 
 the means of transportation and communication within the country." 
 That curse of modern Mexico, the foreign speculator and concessionist. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 11 
 
 was shut out. Mexico was saved from the landed aristocracy, the 
 military despots, and the clutches of the Catholic Church — for a time! 
 
 But what was the cause of the setback of this young democracy? 
 Why did it not grow a,nd thrive? Why were the high and noble hopes 
 of the peons crushed? This young thing that had been inspired by the 
 Spirit and religion of liberty, equality and fraternity, that had dared 
 to stay the hand of oppression and exploitation, that had tasted the 
 sunshine and glory of the new day, met with a violent death. To Diaz 
 and his soldiery, representing international capitalism — American, 
 British and French railroad and industrial speculators and concession- 
 seekers — must be laid the responsibility for the death of the develop- 
 ing agrarian democracy. | 
 
 Porfirio Diaz was a military officer under Juarez. Seeing that he 
 would make a willing tool, those interested in exploiting the labor and 
 resources of Mexico helped Diaz to overthrow the constitutionalist 
 rule and establish himself as dictator of the country. In 3876 the Diaz 
 cuartelazo took place and triumphed, not because of its strength -or 
 popularity, but because of the fear of the people of United States 
 intervention. "Thus we have Porfirio Diaz President of Mexico by the 
 grace of American Big Business through the Immediate instrumental- 
 ity of an unpopular army revolt, and as a direct result of the national 
 fear of United States intervention. Consequently, from the day of his 
 entry into Mexico City in 1876, to the day of his flight to Paris In 
 1910, thirty-four years Jater, Diaz was supported POSITIVELY by the 
 psychological power of the clergy and the subsidized press, by the 
 physical power of the Army, and by the economic power of the United 
 States and Europe; NEGATIVELY by the impotence of the people in 
 face of an ever impending United States invasion." ("Mexican 
 People.") 
 
 During the dictatorship of Diaz the people— something like two 
 millions — were evicted from their lands. Peonage was re-established 
 and wage slavery was of the most abject character. 
 
 EVICTION OF THE SMALL FARMERS 
 
 Mexico certainly prospered under Diaz — for the few, the land- 
 owners, speculators and concessionists. The following paragraphs from 
 "The Mexican People" illustrate the methods of Diaz and his soldiery 
 in evicting the small farmers from their lands and turning it over to 
 the big landowners and so making the country prosperous! 
 
 "One day (in 1885) a party of surveyors appeared in the valley 
 (Papantla in the State of Vera Cruz) with their transits. The people 
 knew only too well the meaning of this invasion, and, filled with fore- 
 boding, they protested to the surveyors that they had no desire to have 
 their lands measured even if the government had ordered it, for those 
 lands were their private property by the warranty of the Constitution. 
 The surveyors persisted and the next day appeared with a posse of 
 rurales. Again the people protested, but this time they were silenced 
 
12 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 by force, and in the clash that ensued, several lives were lost on 
 both sides. 
 
 "Pour days later a force consisting- of several thousand rurales 
 and a division of the army entered the valley and began the system- 
 atic extermination of the population. How many were killed will 
 never be known. About ten years ago in the course of our investi- 
 gations we visited this valley and endeavored to elicit some details 
 of the affair from the people. Neither man, woman, nor child could 
 be induced to say a word, hecause already a number of them had met 
 death, banishment, imprisonment, and flogging for even speaking of it. 
 In spite of this dumbness of the people, however, we obtained Inde- 
 pendent proof that for fifteen days the slaughter never ceased, that 
 not a man escaped alive, that only a remnant of women and children 
 were spared, and that the task of burying the dead was so great that 
 a month after the air for miles around the valley was unbreathable 
 owing to the stench of the thousands of putrefying corpses. Today 
 this whole region, where once twenty thousand peaceable, industrious 
 folk obtained a prosperous living; from the soil, belongs to a single 
 rich family. 
 
 "In Nuevo Leon, one of those states which by reason of its great 
 agrarian strength had managed to retain a certain independence, the 
 local government endeavored to protect the people in the possession 
 of their lands. The speculators, however, were not to be balked of 
 their prey. Accordingly Diaz, at their behest, dispatched an over- 
 whelming force into the state, overthrew the authorities and again 
 accomplished the wholesale eviction of the people from their lands. 
 
 "The natives of Nuevo Leon, however — some of the best fighting 
 stock in Mexico — violently resisted the government troops, and Diaz 
 in order to quell them was compelled to resort once more to the threat 
 of inviting United States intervention. The ruse was entirely suc- 
 cessful. Washington dispatched troops to the border, and the people 
 abandoned the fight, choosing to submit to wholesale eviction from 
 their farms rather than incur a new violation of the fatherland. 
 
 "Following the dispossessions of Papantla and Nuevo Leon, the 
 entire State of Chihuahua passed from the possession of hundreds of 
 thousands of small farmers into the possession of two or three families 
 under the leadership of one man — today (under Diaz) the largest cattle 
 owner in the world " 
 
 The entire Isthmus of Tehuantepec under Diaz belonged to what 
 was known as the Pearson syndicate, headed by Wheetman D. Pearson, 
 now Lord Cowdray — ^probably knighted by the British Government for 
 his great work of exploiting the resources and labor of Mexico! 
 
 "The clergy had a prominent position at the banquet 
 
 Indeed, never had the Church prospered as it had under Diaz. Not 
 only were the clergy given a prominent share in the Mexican debt 
 operations, and thus enabled again to possess themselves of vast land 
 holdings, but immense concessions of the richest lands in Mexico were 
 given them from time to time in such quantities, indeed, that the 
 Church in Mexico owns more land today (under Diaz) than at any 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 13 
 
 timo since the Conquest." ("Mexican People.") And this in spite of 
 article 27 of the Constitution of 1857, which forbids "religious corpora- 
 tions or institutions, no matter of what denomination" from having a 
 "legal capacity to acquire or manage any real estate except the 
 buildings which are used immediately and directly for the services 
 of the said institutions." The law of December 14, 1874, is also 
 similar to this. 
 
 Says Enriquez in his biography of Diaz: "General Diaz is the head 
 of the Freemasors in Mexico. He is of the thirty-third degree and 
 Grand Commander for life. At the same time he is the invisible head 
 of the Catholic Church, its arch-protector and its director, influencing 
 indirectly the appointment of bishops and archbishops, and the crea- 
 tion of new dioceses of archbishoprics." (Zayas Enriques, "Porfirio 
 Diaz.') 
 
 To those who desire a first-hand inside story of conditions for 
 the toilers in Mexico under Diaz just previous to the revolution of 
 1910, I recommend John Kenneth Turner's book "Barbarous Mexico." 
 Says the author: "The real Mexico I found to be a country with a 
 written constitution and written laws in general almost as fair and 
 democratic as our own, but with neither constitution nor laws in 
 operation. Mexico is £. country without political freedom, without 
 freedom of speech, without a free press, without a free ballot, without 
 a jury system, without political parties, without any of our cherished 
 guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is a land 
 where there has been no contest for the office of president for more 
 than a generation, where the executive rules all things by means of a 
 standing army, where political offices are sold for a fixed price. 1 
 found Mexico to be a land where the people are poor because they 
 have no rights, where peonage is the rule for the great mass, and 
 where actual chattel slavery obtains for hundreds of thousands." This 
 was Mexico under Porfirio Diaz, "president" of Mexico — by grace of 
 American Big Business! Do you wonder the slaves, the peons, 
 revolted? 
 
 YUCATAN SLAVERY 
 
 During the dictatorship of Diaz thousands of Yaqui Indians of 
 Sonora were evicted from their lands and transported to the slave 
 pens of the Yucatan henequen, or sisal hemp, plantations. These 
 plantations were owned by ahout fifty henequen kings and were 
 worked by about one hundred and fifty thousand slaves, Yaquis, 
 Koreans, and native Mayas, or as the planters called them to get 
 around the law which forbade slavery, "laborers in enforced service 
 for debt." "But the fact that is was not service for debt was proven 
 by the habit of transferring the slaves from one master to another, not 
 on any basis of debt, but on the basis of the market price of a man." 
 
 Writing in "Barbarous Mexico," John Kenneth Turner has the 
 following to say about the slavery of Yucatan as it existed when Diaz 
 was in power in Mexico: 
 
14 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 "How are the slaves recruited? ... 'It is very easy,' one planter 
 told me. 'All that is necessary is that you get some free laborer in 
 debt to you, and then you have him. Yes, we are always getting new 
 laborers in that way.' 
 
 "The amount of debt does not matter, so long as it is a debt, and 
 the little transaction is arranged by men who combine the functions 
 of money lender and slave broker. Some of them have offices in 
 Merida and they get the free laborers, clerks, and the poorer class of 
 people generally into debt, just as professional loan sharks of America 
 get clerks, mechanics, and office men into debt — ^by playing on their 
 needs and tempting them. . . . 
 
 "These money-lending slave brokers of Merida do not hang out 
 signs and announce to the world that they have slaves to sell. They 
 do their business quietly, as people who are comparatively safe in 
 their occupation, but as people who do not wish to endanger their 
 business by too great publicity — like police-protected gambling houses 
 in an American city, for example. . . . 
 
 "These men buy and sell slaves. And the planters buy and sell 
 slaves. I was offered slaves in lots of one up by the planters. I was 
 told that I could buy a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, or a thousand 
 of any of them, to do with them exactly as I wished, that the police 
 would protect me in my possession of these, my fellow beings. Slaves 
 are not only used on the henequen plantations, but in the city as per- 
 sonal servants, as laborers, as household drudges, as prostitutes. How 
 many of these persons there are in the city of Merida I do not know, 
 though I heard many stories of the absolute power exercised over 
 them. Certainly the number is several thousand. . . . 
 
 "Why do the henequen kings call their system enforced service 
 for debt instead of by its right name? Probably for two reasons — 
 because the system is the outgrowth of a milder system of actual 
 service for debt, and because of the prejudice against the word slavery, 
 both among Mexicans and foreigners. Service for debt in a milder 
 form than is found in Yucatan exists all over Mexico and is called 
 peonage. Under this system, police authorities everywhere recognize 
 the right of an employer to take the body of a laborer who is in debt 
 to him, and to compel the laborer to work out the debt. Of course, once 
 the employer can compel the laborer to work, he can compel him to 
 work at his own terms, and that means that he can work him on such 
 terms as will never permit the laborer to extricate himself from his 
 debt. . . . 
 
 "The slaves of Yucatan get no money. They are half-starved. 
 They are worked almost to death. They are beaten. A large per- 
 centage of them are locked up every night in a house resembling a 
 jail. If they are sick, they must still work, and if they are so sick that 
 it is impossible for them to work, they are seldom permitted the ser- 
 vices of a physician. The women are compelled to marry, compelled 
 to marry men of their own plantation only, and sometimes are com- 
 pelled to marry certain men not of their choice. There are no schools 
 for the children. Indeed, the entire lives of these people are ordered 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 15 
 
 at the whim of a master, and if the master wishes to kill them, he 
 may do so with impunity. I heard numerous stories of slaves being 
 beaten to death, but I never heard of an instance in which the mur- 
 derer was punished, or even an-ested. The police, the public pros- 
 ecutors, and the judges know exactly what is expected of them, for 
 the men v/Lo appoint them are the planters themselves. . . ." 
 
 Now this is all changed. Slavery and peonage have been abolished 
 in Yucatan by the people who rebelled against the tyranny of the 
 wonderful "maker" of Mexico, and one of the most progressive govern- 
 ments in Mexico has been set up. 
 
 Those who defend Porfirio Diaz and his system don't tell you about 
 these things. They don't speak r-f how the government of Diaz set 
 about to exterminate the Yaquis of Sonora; of how the government 
 deported them to Yucatan, and how the authorities utilized the money 
 derived from their sale into slavsry. No, Diaz, they tell us, was the 
 maker of Mexico; the country prospered under him — and doubtless 
 many of them, wish another Diaz would come along and give them 
 back privileges taken from them by the Constitutionalists. 
 
 John Kenneth Turner reports the following statement made to 
 him by Colonel Francisco B. Cruz of Diaz's army relative to the selling 
 of the Yaquis into slavery in Yucatan: 
 
 "In the past three and one-half years I have delivered just fifteen 
 thousand seven hundred Yaquis in Yucatan — delivered, mind you, for 
 you must remember that the government never allows me enough 
 expense money to feed them properly, and from ten to twenty per 
 cent die on the journey. 
 
 "These Yaquis sell in Yucatan for $65 apiece — men, women, and 
 children. Who gets the money? Well, $10 goes to me for my ser- 
 vices. The rest is turned over to the Secretary of War. This, how- 
 ever, is oEly a drop in the bucket, for I know this to be a fact, that 
 every foot of land, every building, every cow, every burro, everything 
 left behind by the Yaquis when they are carried away by the soldiers, 
 is appropriated for the private use of authorities of the State of 
 Sonora." ("Barbarous Mexico.") 
 
 Let it be understood that the slavery in Mexico under Diaz was 
 not only the concern of Mexican landowners. Americans, and others, 
 also were interested in slavery. "Americans work the slaves — buy 
 them, drive them, lock them up at night, beat them, l^ill them, exactly 
 as do other employers of labor in Mexico. And they admit that they 
 do these things. In my possession are scores of admissions by Amer- 
 ican planters that they employ labor which is essentially slave labor. 
 All over the tropical section of Mexico, on the plantations of rubber, 
 sugar cane, tropical fruits — everywhere — you will find Americans 
 buying, imprisoning, killing slaves." ("Barbarous Mexico.") 
 
16 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO % 
 
 THE MEXICO OF TODAY 
 
 Now let us consider the Mexico of today. Having revolted and 
 once more established constitutional rule, democratized the land, 
 abolished slavery and peonage, and established freedom of press and 
 speech, the people of Mexico once more find themselves face to face 
 with threatened intervention. 
 
 One of the schemes of the interventionists is to try to make people 
 believe that the present constitution of Mexico, known as the Consti- 
 tution of 1917, is in no way related to the Constitution of 1857, but is 
 a new one, framed mainly with the purpose of confiscating all prop- 
 erty supposedly belonging to foreigners, Americans in particular. The 
 Constitution of 1917 is an evolution of that of 1857; it is a modification 
 and an enlargement of the Constitution of 1857. It was written with 
 the blood and tears of the oppressed and exploited peons of Mexico, 
 and it is without a doubt the most democratic and humanitarian 
 document in the western hemisphere; in fact, outside of Soviet 
 Russia no countrj^ in the world has taken such a step toward real 
 liberty. 
 
 The principal articles of the Constitution of 1917 are similar to 
 those of the Constitution of 1857. What should especially interest 
 the workers of this and other countries, aside from the principal 
 articles, is the great attention given to labor and social welfare by 
 the 1917 Constitution. Under Article 123 we find the following: 
 
 "I — ^Eight hours shall be the maximum limit of a day's work. 
 
 "II — The maximum limit of night work shall be seven hours. 
 Unhealthy and dangerous occupations are forbidden to all women and 
 to children under sixteen years of age. Nightwork in factories is 
 likewise forbidden to women and to children under sixteen years of 
 age; nor shall they be employed in commercial establishments after 
 ten o'clock at night. 
 
 "Ill — The maximum, limit of a day's work for children over twelve 
 and under sixteen years of age shall be six hours. The work of 
 children under twelve years of age cannot be made the object of a 
 contract. 
 
 "IV — Every workman shall enjoy at least one day's rest for every 
 six days' work. 
 
 "V — Women shall not perform any physical work requiring con- 
 siderable physical effort during the three months immediately pre- 
 ceding parturition; during the month following parturition they shall 
 necessarily enjoy a period of rest and shall receive their salaries or 
 wages In full and retain their employment and the rights they may 
 have acquired under their contracts. During the period of lactation 
 they shall enjoy two extraordinary daily periods of rest of one-half 
 hour each in order to nurse their children. 
 
Library 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 17 
 
 "VI — The minimum wage to be received by a workman shall be 
 that considered sufficient,. . . to satisfy the normal needs of the life 
 of the workman, his education and his lawful pleasures. . . . 
 
 "VII — The same compensation shall be paid for the same work 
 without j'egard to sex or nationality. 
 
 "XI — When owing to special circumstances it becomes necessary 
 to increase the working hours there shall be paid as wages for the 
 overtime one hundred per cent more than those fixed for regular time. 
 In no case shall the overtime exceed three hours nor continue for 
 more than three consecutive days; and no women, of whatever age, 
 nor boys under sixteen) years of age, may engage in overtime work. 
 
 "XII — ^In every agricultural, industrial, mining or similar class of 
 work employers are bound to furnish their workmen comfortable and 
 sanitary dwelling-places for which they may charge rents not exceed- 
 ing one-half of one per cent per month of the assessed value of the 
 properties. They shall likewise establish schools, dispensaries, and 
 other services necessary to the community. . . . 
 
 "XIII — Furthermore ,there shall be set aside in these labor centers, 
 whenever their population exceeds two hundred inhabitants, a space 
 of land not less than five thousand square meters for the establish- 
 ment of public markets, and the construction of buildings designed 
 for municipal services and places of amusement. No saloons nor 
 gambling houses shall be permitted in such labor centers. 
 
 "XIV — Employers shall be liable for labor accidents and occu- 
 pational diseases arising from work; therefore employers shall pay 
 the proper indemnity. . . . 
 
 "XV — Employers shall be bound to observe in the installation of 
 their establishments all the provisions of law regarding hygiene and 
 sanitation and to adopt adequate measures to prevent accidents due 
 to the use of machinery, tools and working materials. . . . 
 
 "XXII — An employer who discharges a workman without proper 
 cause or for having joined a union or syndicate or for having taken 
 part in a lawful strike, shall be bound, at the option of the workman, 
 either to perform the contract or to indemnify him by the payment of 
 three months' wages. . . ." 
 
 Now, where in these enlightened United States will you find a 
 state that has laws on its statute books that can favorably compare 
 with the aJbove provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917? You 
 can't find it. Where is there a state in the Union that has the eight- 
 hour law on its books? Where is there one that gives the woman 
 worker the deal that the oft-time despised and "ignorant" Mexicans 
 give her? Tell me where in this country above the Rio Grande a 
 woman worker gets equal pay for equal work with a man. You can't 
 
18 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 do it. Thousands and thousands of women in the United States are 
 occupied in similar work as men — and are they getting equal pay- 
 ment? Most decidedly not. That is why they are oftentimes em- 
 ployed — they can be worked cheaper. 
 
 I am not claiming perfection, or anything resembling perfection, 
 for the Mexican Constitution, nor would any intelligent Mexican claim 
 such, but I do claim, and I think intelligent and fair-minded Americans 
 will likewise claim, that the downtrodden, exploited peons of Mexico 
 have produced a document written with their blood and bitter tears 
 that surpasses anything and is a greater step towards real liberty of 
 the People than anything produced by any country on the American 
 continent. In fact, as mentioned before, Soviet Russia, and also 
 Soviet Hungary (which was crushed by those who battled for five 
 years to make the world safe for democracy — the imperialistic Allied 
 Governments) — these workers' Soviet republics are the only countries 
 that have produced Constitutions of. the People, as have also the 
 Mexican Revolutionists, though not as far advanced as the European 
 Revolutionists. If the Mexican Constitution has not been put wholly 
 into effect the cause lies more above the Rio Grande than below It. It 
 even might have been v/orded stronger and made more really man- 
 cipating if the Colossus of the North had not been in the minds of the 
 framers. If hands are kept off Mexico real social and economic justice 
 will develop, with the control and ownership of the means of produc- 
 tion in the hands of the workers — all industry in the hands of those 
 who do the work, for the benefit of all, not a few — society being 
 of such an order that the Rights of Man are supreme and not those of 
 Property. This the upholders and disciples of capitalism in America 
 can see, and that is one reason why they demand intervention. 
 Anything that threatens the Profit System must be crushed! Plutoc- 
 racy, both European and American, has been touched at its pocket 
 nerve — the reaction from which frequently causes the plutocrat to 
 see red. 
 
 There is an organization of exploiters of Mexican labor and re- 
 sources, with headquarters in New York City, known as the National 
 Association for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico. This 
 association, which should be called the Association for the Spreading 
 of Lies about Mexico and Preaching of Intervention, issues a bulletin 
 filled with carefully selected articles of misrepresentation, often un- 
 signed, and deliberately published with the purpose of inflaming the 
 people's minds and "educating" them to intervention. This bulletin 
 they spread broadcast, and their organizers go about the country get- 
 ting new members — chiefly from the ranks of the capitalists and their 
 retainers — and pouring their poisonous virus into the minds of the 
 unwary and those unacquainted with the facts regarding Mexican 
 affairs. 
 
 I have before me a list of members of this association and on the 
 executive committee we find, among others, the following: Edward L. 
 Doheny, president, Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Co.; Amos 
 L. Beatty, general counsel, The Texas Co.; Walter Douglas, president, 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 19 
 
 Montezuma Copper Co.; Thomas W. Lamont, member of J. P. Morgan 
 & Co.; Chester O. Swain, general counsel, Standard Oil Co. of N. J. 
 
 In groups the active members run as follows: agricultural and 
 cattle; banking and security holders; commercial trading; industrial; 
 mining and smelting; petroleum and petroleum refining; and the 
 "general interest" group, which is composed of the El Paso Chamber 
 of Commerce, Houston i hamber of Commerce, and the L/)s Angeles 
 Chamber of Commerce, the last mentioned being the most notorious 
 group of labor-haters and exploiters in America. 
 
 This is certainly a fine crowd to entrust the welfare of Mexico 
 and its people to! This is the gi'oup of labor exploiters who are so 
 concerned about carrying democracy to the downtrodden peons who 
 are crying out for a deliverer, to hear this association tell it. 
 
 American "rights" in Mexico — that means capitalist or property 
 rights. You don't hear anything aibout American workers' rights in 
 Mexico — the noise is all about property rights. There is also some 
 noise about personal rights of Americans, but this is merely a scheme 
 to hide the real issue. But where did these Americans who are 
 making all this noise about their property rights get these so-called 
 rights from? Who gave them these rights? How did they come into 
 possession of all this property, in the interest of which they are so 
 anxious to have American workers drop their tools, shoulder guns 
 and fight the Mexican workers? Do you suppose these Association 
 for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico people would cross 
 the Rio Grande, in the event of intervention, and bleed and die for the 
 sake of their property rights in Mexico? No! They want the people 
 who have no property in Mexico — ^the workers of America — to do the 
 dirty work for them, while they sit back and urge the people on In 
 the name of patriotism and democracy! 
 
 Yes, where did they get these "rights" we are hearing so much 
 about? Most of the American concession-holders and property-holders 
 in Mexico got their "rights" from Porfirio Diaz. And where did Diaz 
 get them from? He stole them from the people — the peons, the small 
 farmers. He gave concessions often where he had no right to give 
 concessions. Many an American and British capitalist has made a 
 fortune from these concessions. Diaz destroyed the existing agrarian 
 democracy when he came into power in 1876, a democracy that doubt- 
 less would have developed and blossomed into genuine industrial 
 democracy founded on social and economic justice, and in its place he 
 planted a despotism held together by bayonets, at the shrine of which 
 American, British and other concession-seekers and speculators wor- 
 shipped and grew fat at the expense of the toilers of the mines and 
 the mills and the peons of the soil. If an investigation were made, it 
 would probably be found that many of these so-called American prop- 
 erty rights in Mexico are resting on a pretty slim foundation. Any- 
 how, even though we grant them all their "rights," have not the 
 people of Mexico a perfect right to determine how the property 
 rights of the country shall be administered, and just what "rights" 
 property has? If the Mexicans determine that all property of a public 
 
20 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 nature — such as the land, the mills, the mines, the oil and other 
 mineral deposits — shall be nationalized or socialized, have they not a 
 perfect right to do so? However they determine the land or oil de- 
 posits, for instance, shall be worked or controlled, is their right. 
 If the Mexican Government determines that the interests of the people 
 demand that the oil deposits shall be nationalized, it has a right to go 
 into the oil district of Tampico and tell the American, British and 
 other oil producers that from such and such a date the oil wells will 
 be operated by the people for the benefit of all and not merely for the 
 benefit of a few millionaires and their families, none of whom live in 
 the country but are residents of other countries, busy in exploiting 
 the people of those countries as they are those of Mexico. If the 
 people of Mexico determine that the big landed estates shall be 
 taken from the holders — who in the majority of cases got the estates 
 illicitly and by eviction of the small farmers from their land— they 
 have a right to do so. 
 
 Speaking of American rights in Mexico reminds me of Mexican 
 rights in the United States. Down along the border Mexicans, work- 
 ing men and women, are continually suffering from abuses of their 
 rights as men and women at the hands of Americans, some of whom 
 are probably loudest in the cry for American rights in Mexico. In 
 Southern California Mexican children were so discriminated against 
 in certain public schools recently that one Mexican consul was forced 
 to protest to the Governor of California. As Linn Gale, American 
 editor of Gale's Magazine (published in Mexico City) says, "President 
 Carranza in his message to the Mexican Congress a few days ago 
 showed that Mexico has as much reason to 'intervene' in the affairs 
 of the United States — if it were big enough — as the United States has 
 to interfere with the go\emment down here and more. The list of 
 crimes committed against Mexicans north of the Rio Grande is an 
 indictment against the American Government that is considerably 
 harder to explain away than any complaint that has been made 
 against the Carranza Administration. The American Government, 
 considering the wealth, education and opportunities in the United 
 States, has a rf cord black as midnight compared with that of the 
 young, immature, but honestly struggling Government of Mexico." 
 
 We are told that Mexico is overrun with bandits. We won't deny 
 that there are bandits in certain parts of Mexico, but if it were made 
 as difficult for the bandits to get firearms and ammunition as it is 
 for the Carranza Government, probably the banditry would soon be a 
 thing of the past. American ammunition is invariably found on cap- 
 tured bandits — ^who knows but that is part of the plot to force inter- 
 vention to supply these bandits with ammunition, and even to make 
 bandits? 
 
 Speaking of bandits — do you know that American and British oil 
 producers in Mexico employ a bandit band to "guard" their property? 
 So as to keep the Carranza Government out of the Tampico oil dis- 
 trict the bandit Pelaez is paid a large sum monthly. L. J. de Bekker, 
 writing in "The Nation" of July 12, 1919, makes the statement that 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 21 
 
 he "had been told by the American Embassy in Mexico City that the 
 oil men paid Pelaez, for guarding their interests, $200,000 a month." 
 This has been denied bv the Association of Oil Producers in Mexico in 
 a letter of reply to "The Nation," July 14, 1919, in which they said 
 that "Pelaez naver got one-sixth of that amount for any month from 
 the oil companies." So, you see, we have their own word for it that 
 this bandit did receive money from them. And that he is guarding 
 their interests is made evident by the following paragraph of the same 
 letter: "The article says: 'King Pelaez of the oil fields considers it 
 a patriotic duty to blow up any rolling stock belonging to the Govern- 
 ment.' None of Pelacz's men operate anywhere near any railroad. 
 It is true bandits, or 'patriots,' are continually blowing up cars between 
 San Luis Potosi and Tam.pico, but 'King' Pelaez troops are operating 
 in the oil fields only, far from any railroad, for the reason that the 
 Government is attemipting to confiscate their oil values." 
 
 The statement that "Pelaez's troops are operating in the oil fields 
 only, far from any railroad" is proven false by Mr. de Bekker who 
 says, "I have photographs of some of the Pelaez bandits swinging 
 from telegraph pole:^, where they were hanged by Mr. Carranza's sol- 
 diers. These photographs, being taken from the car windows, show 
 them to have been pretty close to the tracl^." 
 
 HEARST AND INTERVENTION 
 
 The hypocritical Hearst press, which has been engaged for a num- 
 ber of years in misrepresenting the Mexican revolution and squealing 
 eagle fashion for intervention, makes much of the fact that Americans 
 have been killed in Mexico. The country, say these people with an axe 
 to grind, must be cleaned up and responsible, orderly government 
 established, or better still annex it to the United States. 
 
 Now, before the United States undertakes to "clean up" Mexico, 
 how about cleaning up at home first? What about the recent race 
 riots in Washington and Chicago? How about the lynchings of the 
 enlightened South? (I just picked up a paper and read: "Five dead in 
 Knoxville race riot." We sure ought to restore order in Mexico, all 
 right!) As "The Nation" remarks in its August 23rd issue, "there 
 have been 217 Americans killed in Mexico since 1911 and 544 Amer- 
 icans lynched within our borders within that period (we have no 
 record of the number of those killed in strikes and other disorders)." 
 
 There is a reason for Hearst's cry for intervention — and it is not 
 the one he tells his readers. The Mexican Herald, August 24, 1908, 
 published the following information, which throws a light on the 
 Hearst screeching for intervention: "With over a million acres of the 
 finest agricultural and grazing land, with large herds of blooded cattle, 
 horses and sheep, roaming over this vast domain, the big Hearst cattle 
 ranch and farm in Chihuahua is the peer of any such estate in the 
 world whether it lies in the green corn belt of Illinois or Kansas, or 
 stretches for miles across the wind-swept prairies of Texas and Okla- 
 homa. Two hundred and fifty miles of barbed wire fence enclose a 
 
22 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 portion of this vast ranch and within the enclosure graze 60,000 
 thoroughbred Herefords, 125,000 fine sheep, and many thousand head 
 of horses and hogs." This land Hearst is "generally credited with 
 securing from the Mexican government (Diaz's) for nothing or 
 practically nothing." Now, the Mexican revolution of 1910-14 was, as 
 I stated before, lh agrarian revolution and you don't have to stretch 
 your imagination very much to see what would happen to such estates 
 as Hearst's if the full purpose of the revolution were put into effect. 
 
 Another eagle screech er for intervention is the Los Angeles Times. 
 Why? The same reason — another million acres of land. 
 
 Some of the Catholic clergy also want intervention — to get back 
 the Church's lost power in Mexico. Some Catholic prelates and pol- 
 iticians in America have worked and agitated for intervention ever 
 since 1910. It has been said that Felix Diaz's counter-revolutionary 
 activities were backed partly by Catholic gold, and he is known to 
 have received "through an American prelate, a check for one hundred 
 thousand dollars, with which Don Felix was to go to Havana to rally 
 his followers and begin his preparation to start a new revloution." 
 This was msde known by a Mexican Catholic and ex-federal officer, 
 S. Augusto Zubieta and an affidavit, written and sworn to by him, as 
 to the counter-revolutionary part played by many Catholic institutions 
 in America, follows: "I, Salvador A. Zubieta, do hereby declare that 
 on or about December, 1914, and January, 1915, I had occasion to meet 
 
 Cardinal , and talking over the Mexican situation, we 
 
 discussed several questions of importance, among them the alleged 
 actions of Carranza against the Catholic Church, and he confided to 
 me that the Catholics in this country were disposed to back a new 
 revolution, of which Felix Diaz was to be the head. The instigator of 
 this movement is the well-known murderer, Cecilio Ocon, who 
 
 seems to have gained the ear and the confidence of Cardinal ; 
 
 the said Cardinal having believed unquestionably all the false repre- 
 sentations made by this unscrupulous murderer. The Cardinal also 
 asked if I would help in this, probably because he thought my family 
 conections in Mexico and the fact of my being a Catholic, would gain 
 
 some advantage to the cause. Cardinal also stated that 
 
 many Catholic institutions in this country were ready to back this 
 movement with about ten million dollars. 
 
 "(Signed) SAL. AUGUSTO ZUBIETA. 
 
 "New York City, Feb. 27, 1915. 
 
 "State of New York i «<, 
 
 County of New York / ^*" 
 
 "Sworn to before me this 27th day of February, 1915, (Signed) 
 W. J. Berow, Notary Public, New York County No. 374, New York 
 Reg. No. 5255. 
 "(Seal) WILLIAM J. BEROW, Notary Public, New York County." 
 
 (This affidavit is copied from a pamphlet by Dr. A. Paganel, of 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 28 
 
 Mexico City, entitled "What the Catholic Church has done to 
 Mexico.") 
 
 The following letter published in "Pueblo," Vera Cruz, March 26, 
 1915, and sigoed by a number of Catholic priests in Mexico, should be 
 of interest to these militant trouble-makers in the United States who 
 are agitating for intervention: 
 
 "To Don Venustiano Carranza, Chief of the Constitutionalist army 
 and in charge of the Executive Power of the Union: 'We the under- 
 signed Catholic priests of the Archbishopric of Mexico, take pleasure 
 In stating that it is with regret and disapproval that we have seen a 
 number of Catholic refugees in foreign countries, acting on the advice 
 and under the influence of an association which with the pretext of 
 protecting the Catholic cause, has long been trying to interfere in our 
 national affairs, address a petition to a foreign government for the 
 protection of the Church in Mexico. We protest to you that none of 
 us have taken part in these measures which we consider anti-patriotic 
 an unnecessary " (Signed) Dr. Antonio J. Paredes, Vicar Gen- 
 eral of the Archbishopric of Mexico; Jose Cortes, rector; and a number 
 of other Mexican and Spanish priests." 
 
 U. S. GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE 
 
 Ever since Porfirio Diaz was driven out of power in 1910 the 
 United States Government has threatened intervention and has even 
 gone so far as to send expeditions into Mexico after bandits supplied 
 with American arms and ammunition. President Taft mobilized troops 
 on the border as a sinister hint, it seemed, to the revolutionists and 
 to strike terror into their hearts. The present Administration's actions 
 are well known. One day President Wilson is for a thing and the next 
 he changes. In Indianapolis, Jan. 8, 1915, he said: "Until the recent 
 revolution in Mexico eighty per cent of the people never had a 'look- 
 In' in determining what their government should be It Is none 
 
 of my business and it is none of yours how long they take Im determin- 
 ing It. It is none of my business and it is none of yours how they go 
 about the business. The country is theirs. The government Is theirs. 
 Have not European nations taken as long as they wanted, and spilt 
 as much blood as they pleased, in settling their affairs? And shall we 
 deny that to Mexico, because she is weak? No, I say!" 
 
 But in a note to Carranza, June 2 1915, President Wilson has evi- 
 dently expc^rienced a change of neart: ". . . I, therefore, call upon 
 the leaders of Mexico to act. . If they cannot accommodate their 
 differences and unite for this great purpose within a very short time, 
 this Government will be constrained to decide what means should be 
 employed by the United States in orde-^ to helj) J.!exico save her.sclf 
 and serve her people." We know how Mexico would be helped! 
 
 While the present Administration has not actually intervened by 
 force of arms it has prevented the Carranza Government from carry- 
 
24 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 
 
 ing out all the icforms of the Revoluti-U' by its protestc Lid threats 
 to Carranza whenever his Government contemplated putting into effect 
 those reforms. Says John Kenneth Turner, in the "Liberator" of June, 
 1919, of the policy of the Wilson Government: "Agrarian reform was 
 opposed always. Representations were made against Carranza's orig- 
 inal land decree, at the beginning of 1915, and a warning entered 
 against its application to foreigners. Confiscations of vast holdings 
 for non-payment of taxes, non-compliance with the terms of conces- 
 sions, or for other reasons, met with repeated objection. Even expro- 
 priation of the estates of counter-revolutionary plotters evoked protests 
 against 'any action that savors of confiscation.' 
 
 "From the beginning, also, representations were made against 
 every measure seeking to conserve the oil and other mineral deposits 
 for the Mexican people, or even to tax oil or mineral properties, ade- 
 quately. . . 
 
 "In the unending stream of representations appeared numerous 
 direct threats and ultimatums, while resort was made to various forms 
 of coercion, including naval and military demonstrations. Hardly aJi 
 Item of domestic policy escaped interference, which was invariably on 
 behalf of special privilege. 
 
 "Finally, the army of the 'punitive expedition' was held in Mexico 
 for nine months after the Villa chase was definitely abandoned, nine 
 months after General Scott acting for the United States, had signed 
 a memorandum to the effect that the dispersion of the Villa bands had 
 been completed. Meanwhile, Franklin K. Lane and his associates on 
 the American-Mexican Joint Commission, were attempting to browbeat 
 the Mexicans into yielding the guarantees demanded by the Rocke- 
 fellers, the Guggenheims, the Dodges and the Dohenys. Although, in 
 explaining the expedition, the President had declared that the troops 
 would not be used in the interest of 'American owners of Mexican 
 properties' 'so long as sane and honorable men are in control of the 
 government,' the public statement of Lane, issued at the end of No- 
 vember (1916), after a long interview with the President, was nothing 
 more nor less than an acknowledgment that the troops WERE being 
 held in Mexico for that purpose and for no other, and a threat that 
 they would remain there until an agreement was reached regarding 
 such little matters as oil and mining taxes." 
 
 HANDS OFF MEXICO 
 
 Now, as I said at the beginning, the cry of Wall Street and its 
 kept press is for intervention; capital, both American and British, is 
 for intervention. The concessionists, the owners of large estates, the 
 mining, oil and railroad interest, all want a government established in 
 Mexico that will enable them to exploit the country and its labor to 
 their heart's content. If the United States did intervene, then probably 
 the cry would go up for annexation. For the profitmonger knows no 
 limit. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 25 
 
 The Mexican people will solve their problems if outside govern- 
 ments keep their hands off. Let it be the business of American Labor, 
 of all lovers of freedom and fair-play to keep hands off Mexico. Let 
 the servile press howl for intervention as it will, nothing else can be 
 expected of it. It is capitalism's mouthpiece and a fawning, corrupt 
 thing! 
 
 Remember the noble words of William Lloj^d Garrison: "My coun- 
 try is the world; my countrymen are all mankind." The cause of the 
 workers of one coimtry is the cause also of the workers of the rest 
 of the world. Those striving for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity in 
 Mexico, those striving for the emancipation of Labor, with all that 
 that means, and those serving their fellowman in the country below 
 the Rio Grande deserve the respect and help of the workers in this 
 country above the Rio Grande. Let your voice be heard in unmistakable 
 terms: HANDS OFF MEXICO ! 
 
26 APPENDIX 
 
 WHY WAR WITH MEXICO? 
 
 A WAR WITH pUR SISTER REPUBLIC IS ALMOST HERE AND 
 AMERICA IS ASLEEP. 
 
 (From a Leaflet issued by the People's Print, New York City.) 
 
 Do You Know: 
 
 1. That a meeting was recently held in the Banker's Club, New 
 York City, between representatives of the Oil Interests in Mexico and 
 a leading religious organization, to map out the compaign of spiritual 
 uplift for our boys in the inevitable war with Mexico? 
 
 2. That a host of translators and legal experts are at work in 
 New York City NOW to figure out a method by which certain enormous 
 oil and gas properties may nominally be held by native dummy-direc- 
 tors to conform with Mexican law, but the real control resides in Wall 
 Street, New York? 
 
 3. That for the last six months higher officials of the American 
 Army have been drawing up plans for a Mexican campaign by the 
 United States troops? The correspondent of the "New York Times" 
 in Coblenz, Germany, asserts that the Army of Occupation has been 
 spending the last six months perfecting plans for the war with Mexico. 
 He also states that it will be a war conducted with all the latest imple- 
 ments of destruction and carried out on the 1919 model of warfare. 
 
 4. That the British Government has already taken over title to 
 the oil holdings of its nationals in Mexico, and has thus perfected an 
 important step toward an Anglo-American alliance to exploit our sister 
 nation? 
 
 5. That the most powerful banking groups in the world, headed 
 by J. P. Morgan & Co., of New York, and including British and French 
 tiankers, (besides other American firms, have organized themselves to 
 protect the "rights" of foreign investors in Mexico? 
 
 6. That a satisfactory "meeting" was held between oil magnates 
 and the State Department on July 7, as a result of which Wall Street 
 confidently expects early action to "stabilize" Mexico? (See "New 
 York Times," financial section, for July 8.) 
 
 7. That during the months of April and May, Mexico City was the 
 meeting place for trade ambassadors from all parts of the world? 
 These included manufacturers, bankers, and engineers from the 
 
APPENDIX 27 
 
 United States and Canada, from Great Britain, bYance, Spain, Italy, 
 Holland, Denmark, Norway, Argentina, and from Central and South 
 America, and from Japan and China. These men were seeking orders 
 and opportunities for investment and were finding both. Americaji 
 Chamber of Commerce bodies are placing branches in Mexico with 
 agents to map out the country with a \iew of exploiting her unlimited 
 resources and robbing the Mexican paople of their rich heritage. 
 
 8. That the "New York Times" on July 9, declared: "The state- 
 ment was made to the New York Times correspondent by a person 
 who is usually well informed that President Wilson would soon appear 
 before Congress and make an address on the Mexican problem, deal- 
 ing with tile matter along the lines of the McKinley Message to Con- 
 gress which led to intervention in Cuba?" 
 
 9. That "Restore Law and Order" will be the slogan of our war 
 with Mexico, just as "Making the World Safe for Democracy" was our 
 government's slogan for fighting the Germans? Says the "New York 
 Times" — "A canvas of the situation seems to indicate that American 
 intervention in Mexico, not for the purpose of interfering with the 
 sovereign right of Mexicans to govern themselves, but to protect the 
 lives and rights of foreigners in Mexico, and to restore law and order, 
 may be only a matter of months, if not weeks? 
 
 10. That Mexican oil stock advertisements are now appearing 
 with alarming regularity on the financial pages of New York dailies? 
 Also that engineering firms are advertising their services for survey- 
 ing Mexican properties? 
 
 11. That the "Society for the I*rotection of American Rights in 
 Mexico" controlled by the Anaconda Copper Company, the J. P. Morgan 
 & Co., and other large corporations are looking up the widows and 
 orphans of Mexican border irregularities with a view of producing 
 them in Washington as "exhibits" for Congress? Have you ever 
 heard of the Anaconda Copper Co. producing the victims of mining 
 conditions in Butte, Montana, of the Deportation victims of Bisbee, 
 Arizona, before Congress, with a view of demanding "Justice" for the 
 miners? 
 
 Shall America's Youth be sacrificed to satisfy the greed of a Com- 
 bination of Foreign Exploiters? 
 
 Will not American citizenry protest against this brazen plot to 
 stampede people into as shameful a war war as was ever planned? 
 
 THE WAR CAN YET BE AVERTED IF AMERICA WAKES UP! 
 
28 APPENDIX 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF THE TROPICS 
 
 Wherever Nature is most bountiful, there the worker 
 is most exploited and oppressed. The heavy hand of imi>er- 
 ialism has been felt for a long time in all those countries 
 where the sun shines strongest and where the earth yields 
 its fullest harvests. Exploitation and oppression of the 
 most brutal nature have stalked through the forests, over 
 the fields, into the villages and towns, and enslaved, killed 
 and mutilated. If mental enslavement in order to enslave 
 the body were impossible, then the imperialist did not 
 hesitate to use force. Where imperialism could use a 
 tyrant, as in the case of Porfirio Diaz in Mexico, it refrained 
 from calling to its aid the armed power of its own particular 
 country. But where a tool could not be found ,then it used 
 its own soldiery — force, "force to the utmost." India, 
 Egypt, the lands of the Congo in Africa, the Central Ameri- 
 can republics, and the islands of the Caribbean Sea — the 
 toilers in these countries of the tropics and semi-tropics 
 have felt the slimy, brutal hand of imperialism in all its 
 ruthlessness — and they are still feeling it ! 
 
 First take the case of India. Probably no worse crime 
 against native races has been committed anywhere where 
 imperialism has laid hands on. People of the British 
 Empire are accustomed to hearing the praises sounded of 
 the wonderful beneficence of British rule of native races. 
 One of the stock arguments of defenders of British rule is 
 that without such rule the various religions cults and castes 
 and races would endlessly fight among themselves. But, 
 like all disciples of economic injustice the world over, they 
 use these excuses to fool those unacquainted with the facts 
 and to justify their exploitation. What a wonderfully just 
 government of a country it must be that makes not only 
 possible but unavoidable a periodic famine to stalk through 
 the land, cdaiming its victims by the millions! Yes, and 
 millions under British imperialistic rule in India suffer from, 
 not only periodic, but daily starvation as well ! This proves 
 without any other evidence — and there is abundance of it — 
 the beneficence of British rule ! 
 
library 
 
 APPENDIX 29 
 
 And whenever the Hindus get tired of the beneficence 
 of their British masters and plan to throw off the yoke of 
 imperialism, the heavy mailed fist is used to crush the dis- 
 ciples of liberty. When necessary, it reaches out across the 
 sea and finds ready help from the imperialistic forces of 
 other countries. Witness the present United States (Govern- 
 ment coming to the aid of British imperialism and impris- 
 oning Hindu rebels in this country ! If you are a friend of 
 freedom, that should make you think — and ACT! These 
 men are to be deported to India where the beneficent British 
 Government will treat them as becoming reibels — ^line them, 
 up and shoot them. You and others can prevent this, if you 
 act quickly, just as you can prevent the rape of Mexico by 
 the imperialistic forces of America. 
 
 Imperialism is imperialism, regardless of the flag under 
 which it parades. Stripped of all its pretenses it stands 
 forth as plain economic exploitation of the resources and 
 labor of a country bv the capitalists of another country, sup- 
 ported by soldiery. We often hear about European imperial- 
 ism, but how about American imperialismi? All the weak 
 republics of Central America are well acquainted with this 
 particular brand of imperialism. And the workers of these 
 countries are among: the worst exploited and oppressed in 
 either North or South America. When American capitalists 
 can't manage the native governments, they call on the 
 United States Government and soldiers are dispatched to 
 the scene and government bv foreign bayonets is estab- 
 lished. Prdbably the United Fruit Co. would not be able to 
 subject their workers in Central America to such degrading 
 conditions of toil if it were not for the ready support it re- 
 ceives from the imperialism of the United States. 
 
 What right has the United States Government to med- 
 dle in Costa Rica? Why the virtual protectorate in Nica- 
 ragua? And how will Mr. Wilson justify the occupation of 
 Santo Domingo by U. S. marines ? "There is no freedom of 
 the press, no right of assembly, and the people cannot take 
 the initiative to modify the situation,'' according to Dr. 
 Carvajal, late President of Santo Domingo. This is another 
 matter that should make people think — and ACT ! 
 
30 APPENDIX 
 
 Is true Freedom but to break 
 Fetters for our own dear sake, 
 And, with leathern heart, forget 
 That we owe mankind a debt? 
 No ! true Freedom is to share 
 All the chains our brothers wear. 
 And, with heart and hand, to be 
 Earnest to make others free. 
 
 They are slaves who fear to speak 
 For the fallen and the weak; 
 They are slaves who will not choose 
 Hatred, scoffing, and abuse. 
 Rather than in silence shrink 
 From the truth they needs must think ; 
 They are slaves who dare not be 
 In the right with two or three ! 
 
 —JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 
 
APPENDIX M 
 
 HEARSTONIAN SOLILOQUY 
 
 By BERTUCCIO DANTINO 
 
 Says one William Randolph Hearst: 
 
 "Mexico is quite accurst 
 
 By a dreadful kind of soil 
 
 That is full of gold and oil 
 
 That we gentlemen of leisure 
 
 Think was put there for our seizure. 
 
 It's absurd for any Greaser 
 
 To object when we would seize 'er. 
 
 That we grab such land on sight 
 
 Is our good God-given right, 
 
 And no ignorant old peon 
 
 Has a moral right to be on 
 
 Any spot for which we hanker, 
 
 And some day we've got to spank 'er 
 
 If old Mexico impedes us 
 
 When we steal her wealth that feeds us. 
 
 "Tho we Yanks are filled with greed, 
 If those Mexies will but heed ■ 
 We won't do them any hurt. 
 Only come and take their dirt. 
 If those Mexies weren't so slow. 
 And had sense enuf they'd know 
 Wealth endangers all their souls! 
 (Such as gold and oil and coals!) 
 All such dangers we'd remove, 
 And objectors we'd reprove 
 By invading intervention, 
 Which, you see, is our intention. 
 
 "Tho we've millions in our coffers. 
 We grab anything that offers 
 To enlarge our present holdings; 
 Nor care we for all the scoldings 
 Of the slaves who work for wages. 
 Or the soap-box man who rages 
 'Gainst our looting our weak neighbors. 
 Or the silly fool who labors. 
 Wilson is the mighty geezer 
 We can get to lick the Greaser. 
 
 "Tho he kept us out of war once, 
 Still he's onto all our wise stunts. 
 
32 APPENDIX 
 
 And when we get good and ready. 
 He will mind the reins real steady; 
 Jail the Dubbs who seek to check us, 
 And the Pacifists who'd wreck us. 
 
 "Baer was right when once he told us 
 In His wisdom God would hold us 
 As custodians of all wealth — 
 (We don't do it for our health,) 
 But because we've got the habit. 
 When we see a good thing, grab it! 
 When w^e pay the priest for masses 
 It ensures us Heavenly passes; 
 Therefore tho we're rather slow, 
 Soon we'll capture Mexico!" 
 
 — Gale's Magazine. 
 
 (For information about this pamphlet address Author, 634 13th St. 
 Oakland, Calif. 
 
 The International Presa <^Bik> 034 13th St., Oakland, Cal. 
 
DECC 1919 
 
maxers 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 PAT JAN. 2 M 908 
 
m