United Engineering Societies Library (2c2d235d-2ce5-4cf6-9021-766bd4d272c2)

Book Review MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA. By Thomas E. Gibbon, Los Angeles, California. Doubleday Page and Co., New York, 1919, 270 pp., 711/2 X 5 in. $1.50. A vivid, accurate, convincing summing up of the Mexican problem as it confronts us today, devoid of sensationalism or bigotry. A compelling narrative of the relations of the Carranza Government and our own from Oct. 15, 1915, when it was recognized as the de facto government of Mexico, to the present time. It shows the absolute lack of promises kept or lived up to either with its own people or the United States. This is not done by invective or the indiscriminate use of adjectives but by quoting from the instruments on record on both sides of the case. The driving of the Red Cross out of Mexico, which condemned many of the native peons to starvation, and the interference with the Pershing Punitive Expedition are merely mentioned, but the crying crime against the Mexican people, who have sunk to unbelievable depths of misery obscured, but not exceeded, by the sufferings in Europe, is held up in a clarified light. Two illuminating chapters are devoted to the character and treatment of foreign investments in Mexico, Which are a complete refutation of the common statement that Mexico has been exploited remorselessly by the foreign investor. The conces-sions given by Diaz in the days of his regime most condemned are nowise as large nor the land grants as extensive nor the title so absolute as those granted to the railroad builders of our own transcontinental systems and other of our nationally subsidized works. This is not left to further argument but is settled by quoting the various official instruments and not at all in a tedious way. The author's concluding chapter is a picture of the Mexican people from Aztec times, when they had reached a civilization which gave them a better calendar than the Roman Empire ever had until modern times, to their present unhappy and pitiful condition. He concludes, basing his findings on parallel historical downfalls of a once proud people, that present conditions are the natural result of the absolute domination of an alien minority. He grants, of course, that there are many estimable Latin-Mexicans of integrity, ability and charm, but maintains that the dominant minority has continually degraded in fulfillment of the sociological law that the sure revenge of the servile class is found in the corruption of the master class. The book is replete with historical and literary allusions which, added to the pleasing style of the accomplished author, make fascinating the account of one of the world's great tragedies. Mr. Gibbon is a lawyer who has spent much time in Mexico and shows an understanding of the native people not shared by all writers on the Mexican problem. A distinct addition to all literature on the subject. P. E. B.