But In his famous speech at Indianapolis, President Wilson recognized the right of the Mexican people to spill their blood for the conquest of their political and social liberties, which have cost so much to all countries on earth. this recognition must also relate to the campaign now being waged with the object that the Mexicans may secure liberty of conscience, without which their triumphs on the social and political fields however brilliant, would be void and ephemeral. Because the only man who is really free, is he who has succeeded in emancipating himself from the ominous yoke of dogma and tradition. RODLOFO MENENDEZ MENA. Merida, January, 1916. MEXICO REBORN The Processes at Work for the By JULIUS MORITZEN UNIVERSI Leland Stanford, Jr. LIBRARY Author of "The Peace Movement of America," etc. 1 nothing else will be tablishment of the Con reform of the division and the political organization of the states, is absolutely necessary. It will he said to you military colomon that MEXICO REBORN By JULIUS MORITZEN Viewed dispassionately, the Mexican problem differs little from the problems that have confronted other nations in their progress from dependence to full-fledged liberty. The very nearness of Mexico to the United States, however, has tended, in numerous ways, to obscure the vision as to the causes and effects of the revolutionary movement across the Rio Grande. Further than this, while most national transitions have been concerned with throwing off shackles placed on the people from without, Mexican liberation is the result of an internal purifying process whereby those in high places, having abused their trust, were compelled to step down and permit restorative measures to gain the ascendence. "We shall establish, by means of our laws, the welfare to which the citizen of any and every country is entitled; we shall produce a transformation in international legislation which has become a necessity." In this terse sentence, from a speech by General Carranza, delivered at San Luis Potosi, December 26th, 1915, there is summed up the complete political program of reconstruction of the Mexican Constitutionalists. This declaration of independence perforce casts off the yoke of the taskmaster. It reveals the Mexican character as something different than merely a soldier of the revolution. Constructive statesmanship is seen as the great promise on the horizon of the neighboring republic. Partisan rivalry, or struggle for leadership, vanishes into thin air when a nation's future is at stake. Has Carranza kept faith with his conscience when he refused to follow Huerta on the latter's unholy path from traitorous complicity in the murder of President Madero to the dictatorship? Are the Constitutionalists nearer their goal today than when jealous reactionaries attempted to tear into tatters the fabric spun with blood and tears against a common foe? What are the forces at work for the purpose of a regenerated Mexico? The writer traces his main interest in the Mexican people and their aspirations to an address delivered by Luis Cabrera, minister of finance in the Carranza government, before the Clark University conference on Latin America, at Worcester, Mass, in November, 1913. No other speaker so stirred the audiences during the several days of the conference as did this. man who bore a message that came straight from the heart. Mr. Cabrera's plea for a compassionate examination of the Mexican problem was made in the face of other arguments aiming |