Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
Carranza and His
Bolshevik Regime
By
JORGE VERA-ESTANOL
Former Secretary of the Interior and
Former Secretary of Public Education
of the Republic of Mexico
Wayside Press
Los Angeles, Cal.
1920
COPYRIGHT BY
JORGE VERA-ESTANOL.
FORMER SECRETARY OP THE INTERIOR AND
FORMER SECRETARY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO
TO MY COUNTRYMEN
During the year 1919 I published in
"Revista Mexicana, " a weekly periodical
of San Antonio, Texas, a series of seventeen
articles designed to show that the Mexican
constitution which was adopted at Queretaro
in 1917, and which is still in force, is spurious
in origin and that such of its articles as
effected any changes of serious import in
the provisions of the constitution of 1857
were in direct conflict with the principles
of equity and the demands of national
welfare.
At the time when the aforementioned
articles were written, the government of
Venustiano Carranza had been in existence
more than two years and during this period
it had not succeeded in restoring order in
JORGE \ ERA-ESTANOL
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I.—The Mexican constitu-
tion of 1917 is illegitimate, viewed
from a legal, political or revolutionary
standpoint 3
CHAPTER II.—The Assembly of Quere-
taro, which approved the constitution
of 1917, did not represent the will of the
entire nation but merely that of an arm-
ed minority of the proletariat. ... 13
CHAPTER I
—
that preparation" in financial affairs "but
—
also all preparation in constitutional and all
other laws; we decide these momentous
questions after hearing the pros and cons"
sometimes without even hearing them "be-
—
cause when we vote we are led more by our
revolutionary instinct than by our understand-
ing " (Diario de los Debates,
.
I
duties, what difference does it make whether
it is a native or a foreigner who imparts
doctrines, moral commandments, or the con-
solations of religion?
Ia
transgression of his own constitution, but,
as a matter of fact, one of the priests was a
\ Spaniard.
freedom. j
education.
There are, nevertheless, many who oppose
this, the sole way to regeneration, with tke
argument that it will only awaken appetites
and ambitions in the masses. Those who
predict such dangers are retrogressive. They
wish to preserve their own privileges, and will
heed neither the lessons of history nor the
teachings of social science. Ignorance can
temporarily hold the masses in meek sub-
Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime 35
Divisions
of the
Nation
:
Division
of the
Nation
44 Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime
obligation.
There are very many cases where a just
cause might exist for dismissing a workman,
but either it cannot be substantiated by
evidence or is found insufiicient by a court of
arbitration. In all such cases, the employer
Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime 59
Bolshevik.
The spirit which animates such law is more
Bolshevik still, if that were possible. It is
inspired, not by love of justice, but by hatred
of all non-proletariat classes, particularly the
wealthy; and is dominated by a lust for wealth.
The period of plunder and spoliation which,
under the name of " incautacion " (seizure of
property), prevailed prior to the adoption of
the Constitution of Queretaro, clearly shows
that it was not an ardent desire for justice
that really inspired certain laws of that
political code.
Such plunder and robberies were perpetrated
individuallyby the so-called "armed citizens"
— the unsound portion of the proletariat and
—
the escaped convicts who ironically assumed
the name of Constitutionalists and later
became the nucleus of the Liberal Constitu-
Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime 65
retrogression.
on a large or on a
Practically, all attempts
small scale which have been made for the
socialization of economic activity have been
an utter failure, not only because of the lack of
individual initiative which we have referred
to, but also on account of the often proved
innate unfitness of governments to act as
agents of production.
76 Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime
Income $992,374.11
Cost of management 676,261.63
The —
cost of management nothing more nor
less than the cost of management of the —
seized property consumed G8 per cent, of the
income producing power of that property.
Can any argument more eloquent be offered
against the socialization of private enterprises?
For this very reason, our unshaken convic-
tion is that properly to look after social
interests, the power of the government to
interfere in the management of private enter-
prises should be limited to those which are in
the nature of public utilities.
—
zens" who are today called public oflBcials
have admirably interpreted the spirit of their
constitution.
Alvaro Obregon, who knows his colleagues
well and intimately, says that the leaders of
the "very especially those of
Revolution,
the highest ranks," have diverged from the
road of high principles "to follow that which
leads to wealth and power, taking advantage
of the prestige gained by combined effort,
to acquire fortunes and commit excesses,''
and "many of the men of high rank, both
military and civil, have completely deadened
the aims of the revolutionary movement"
(I would say, had
the literally followed
purposes of the Carrancista movement) "de-
voting all their activities to acquiring
fortunes."*
*See also the following statemenU taken from an interview given to "Tli«
Times." of Los Angeles, by P. Elias Calles, on April 26, 1920:
Total 78,706,431
Chihuahua $118,774.83
Coahuila 110,947.88
Colima 67,152.05
Durango 29,983.21
Guanajuato 39,748 20
.
Guerrero 95,171.60
Jalisco 410,631.96
Mexico 92,994.25
Michoacan 534,963 12
.
Oaxaca. 149,020.70
Puebla 126,458.50
Queretaro 124,674.21
San Luis Potosi 553,874 38
.
Sinaloa 146,140.38
Sonora 224,096.02
Tlaxcala 51,168.20
Zacatecas 143,366 06
.
stated
"The Constitutionalist government, com-
pelled by circumstances, has found it necessary
to take from all the banks approximately
twenty millions for the affairs of the govern-
ment."
And in the Presidential message of Sep-
tember 1st, 1918, also presented to Congress,
we read as follows: "As is generally known,
the pre-constitutional government first, and
later the constitutional, took" (that is just
the word, took, and took by force), "as a
loan from the banks of issue their metallic
stock on hand having an approximate value
of $54,000,000."
Unofl&cial data makes the amount larger
than that quoted by the First Chief. Except-
ing those which transferred their funds to
the United States before the plunder began,
all the banks are at present drained of gold
making it.
Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime 197
the country.
The masses did not rush to the polls, the
educated minority went to them; but the
government, with all the civil and military
personnel at its service, by the local
assisted
authorities, using the resources and the organi-
zation of the administrative machine and
taking the greatest possible advantage of the
waste of strength involved by the indirect
ballot, dominated in the ballot boxes, at the
polls, and in the electoral colleges, and the
independent party would infallibly lose the
elections. Dictatorship or revolution were
the only alternatives. Such has been our
history.
Parallel with a rational conception of
suffrage, freedom of speech and of the press
is indispensable. The constituents of 1857
considered that liberty well guaranteed by
means of trial by jury against any offenses
of the press; but the policy of the Diaz
faction suppressed it during the administration
of General Gonzalez, and since then the press
stopped being the free organ of public opinion,
and as a result, this opinion was no longer
able to give strength or support to honest and
fit oflScials nor could it be a check to incompet-
ency or corruptness.
200 Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime