Mexico And the Caribbean

. The overturning of the Car- ranza government may mean the first real, though somewhat uncertain, step toward self-government as we know it here in the United States. This assumption is predicated on the fact that the Mexicans are weary of war, after a nine years' orgy of bloodshed, during which time almost every crime was committed in the name of liberty and of democracy. Much of the confusion which has clouded the minds of many observers of Mexican affairs has been occasioned by non-consideration of the history of the Mexican people and the consequent failure to comprehend the true character of the natives. It is but natural that North Americans should apply the yardstick of experience in measuring the happenings and judging of the future of the republic to the south of them, but such a procedure must inevitably result in wrong conclusions. The first question, therefore, which one must endeavor to answer, in order to dispassionately judge the present-day Mexican situation, is: Who are the Mexican people? Their beginning is shrouded in mystery. No field offers such fascination for the archeologist. We know from the ruins of Palenque and of Mitla that a race peopled Mexico some 2000 years before Christ. From the inscriptions chiseled on the ruins of the stone temples which have been unearthed it seems probable that these people were star- worshippers and their hieroglyphics bear a resemblance to those of the early Assyrians and Egyptians. The beginnings ...