Speaking of Books

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death. Mr. Wells is writing under the influence of strong emotion, and in this case that is a disadvantage. Catherine Wells' own revelation of herself as shown in her stories is so dimmed by the glow of her husband's presentation in his introduction that the book would have been more satisfactory without his part in it. What a pity he didn't allow these stories to be just themselves.

The Magnificent Marquis

By P. W. WILSON

"The Life of Lord Curzon," By The Earl of Ronaldshay. Boni & Liveright

I

T is this second of the three volumes, devoted by Lord Ronaldshay to the career of Lord Curzon, that is to be received as an essential history. It was not at Eton and Oxford, not even at Westminster, that the magnificent marquis trod his appointed quarterdeck, but in India; and here we have his viceroyalty described by one who himself has glittered in the gorgeous East as a governor. It is a narrative at once sympathetic and searching. Lord Ronaldshay appreciates Lord Curzon's merits but he does not conceal his failure.

Egypt, in Italy, in Spain, in Poland, it has been Parliament itself that has aroused a popular pessimism. If there be an argument in defense of the Curzon attitude, it is that nothing as yet has been found in India of which you can say with certainty that it offers a better hope of happiness.

was a

That Lord Curzon, like Indian potentates themselves, enjoyed the luxury of power, is obvious. Where he differed, let us say, from Akbar or Solomon, was in the fact that power was all that he lived for. There is not a suggestion that, amid the pomp of power, he sought pleasure. On the contrary, his magnificence martyrdom. There was not a day, scarcely an hour, that he could call his own, and his official salary was never more than pocket money. On India he lavished, not only his wife's income but her strength, and his passionate devotion to her company. He chose the job but there were times when, in bitterness, he writhed under the sacrifice. If ever a man earned his statue, it was Lord Curzon.

Yet a statue of stone has been his only reward. For his sense of duty, Indians themselves entertain respect. But as yet, there is not a hint that, around Lord Curzon's name, there is gathering that glory which surrounds so many despots, far inferior to him in character and achievement. His gospel for India was that she must be saved by men different from herself. a tween the jewelled turban and the cork helmet there must be no compromise. India must be a China and England must provide the Manchus.

What Lord Curzon stood for-and, as it proved, in vain-was an absolute autocracy. He did not want a national capital at Delhi. He insisted on British capital at Calcutta. He favored an Anglicised, not an Indianised civil service, and he mistrusted any tendency to develop representative institutions. Education could be overdone. Nor, in his heart, did he accept any one into partnership with his own caste except the Indian princes, and even these he lectured for their undoubted sins of omission. As for the frontiers, his only defense of them was to extend them. Over Afghanistan he was a jealous watch-dog. Into the heart of Tibet he drove a military expedition.

Yet it is not enough to say that Lord Curzon was the last of his dynasty. Let us agree that today his Durbar would be merely a signal for violence. and boycott. What then? Has there been discovered an alternative? Under a restricted Constitution, can it be said that India has arrived at tranquillity? It has been stated that Parliaments are designed to indicate how much of administration by officials the people can stand. Not only in India but in

Be

now

That Lord Curzon represented a system in its obsolescence is thus manifest. We shall see whether Sir John Simon and his Commission, studying India, can suggest a better system. During much of Lord Curzon's term of office, Indian sentiment acquiesced in his authority. It was only his partition of Bengal that at the end aroused the furies. But his successors inherit that awakening. It is with the Curzonian legacy that they have to deal. It is a legacy in which, as it seems sometimes, the liabilities exceed the assets. Yet, in fairness to Lord Curzon be it added that the legacy was one which he himself had to accept from predecessors, who, in less spectacular fashion than he, were preparing India, as the Czars prepared Russia, for something other than their own régime.

He Done Her Wrong

By MARY SHIRLEY

"Woman In Flight," by Fritz ReckMelleczewen (Boni & Liveright), is a translation from the German, glorifying the Girl Murderess of the type familiar to readers of the tabloid newspapers. To be sure, Elfie's old lady was not really "done in," Elfie having made a bad job of her, but the poor girl did the best she could. Elfie was one of those girls who persist in being more sinned against than sinning. The refrain of Frankie and Johnnie would adequately summarize her experiences from cover

to

cover-“He Done Her Wrong." For such a congenital victim there seems no other solution than to lie down like the Babes in The Wood and let the robins cover them with leaves. Which is just about what Elfie did. Only, when she Went Out Into The Night it was snowing and there weren't any robins nor any leaves. Ever and anon some alert sociologist discovers the White Slave traffic between Europe and South America-always South America, mind you-we remain quite sanitary and pure with our Moral Turpitude clause Mr. Reck-Melleczewen has found this unsavoury commerce useful to his highly-charged narrative. This reader admits finding the graphic description of the suffering of a little marmoset in a vivisectionist clinic far more excruciating than the Episodes of Elfie. The author says, "After I had carried the trembling Stepka back to bed, a strong yearning came over me to drill recruits once more in order to impede somewhat the progress of humanity in general and that of science in particular." A sentiment we passionately commend!

"Woman In Flight" is written with a good deal of dramatic power, and those who still enjoy a little White Slaving after dinner have found it an engrossing document. Of its truth there seems to be little question and the book has aroused a vast amount of discussion. It should make a fortune in the Cinema. Movie fans-and "Aren't We All?"-should adore it.

THE OUTLOOK, September 19, 1928. Volume 150, Number 3, Published weekly by The Outlook Company at 120 East 16th Street, New York, N. Y. Subscription price $5.00 a year. Single copies 15 cents each. Foreign subscription to countries in the Postal Union, $6.56. Entered as second-class matter, July 21, 1893, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., and July 20, 1928, at the Post Office at Springfield, Mass., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1928, by The Outlook Company.

September 19, 1928

"What is the matter with Mexico?" people in the United States try to ask. They try to "study conditions down there." But diplomatic agencies, observers official and unofficial, special representatives, missions of every denomination and kind, Congressional investigators, financial and trade experts, reports of private citizens, and books, pamphlets and articles by journalists of every character and color, fail to clear away the confusion about conditions south of the Rio Grande.

affairs, and I shall have done this by statements that can be substantiated by official records and verifiable documents. It will be plain that the causes of bewilderment did not lie where they were sought.

The Government at Washington has D

tried various theories since 1911 in dealing with Mexico, and has announced from time to time that the problem has been solved. But as one distressing event follows another, both the citizens and the Administration must begin to wonder whether a correct plan of action has been formed on accurate knowledge of all the facts.

A wider search is needed. The clues that much has been happening in Mexico are to be found beyond her borders in the United States, in Europe, in Soviet Russia.

A red thread runs through the Mexican maze. I propose to pick up that thread and, with the reader of these articles, follow it through. When we reach the end, I shall have disposed of many misunderstandings of Mexican

OCUMENTARY evidence accumulated in Washington furnishes a basis for true judgment, but there are too many prone to hunt substantiation for their own pet theories or to further their own personal interest, rather than to reach just conclusions. Any attempt to lay bare the truth is met by a verbal smoke-screen of "Oil," "Wall Street," "Catholicism," "Imperialism," "Reaction," "Hands Off." Seemingly a conspiracy of indifference and silence is keeping the United States in ignorance.

The Mexican storm is not isolated; it is not even the center of the cyclone. It is only one of the many aspects of a struggle now going on the world over.

Study of current happenings gives little insight into the magnitude of the forces involved. Many things happening in Mexico and elsewhere on this

continent

had their origin many years ago. Now the effects are beginning to appear.

There are times when history becomes "news;" when the public, bedeviled by prejudiced opinion unsupported by facts, will welcome an opportunity to read unwritten or forgotten history in order to understand the present. Such a time has come in Mexico. Suppressed or ignored facts must be recounted concisely and supported by incontrovertible evidence.

The following lines are an effort to accomplish these purposes, hoping that representative people of the American nation will bring to bear the aid of their experience and knowledge in order to reach sound conclusions.

A

T the beginning of this century a certain Vladmir Ilych Ulianov, who afterwards changed his name to Nikolai Lenin, formed in Europe a group of "professional revolutionists," hand-picked specialists in mass manipulation, strong-willed nucleus of worldwide Communist revolt.

Lenin and his followers considered Russia and the United States of America the countries where conditions appeared to be most favorable for promoting class struggle and civil war. Each country occupied a strategic position, with vast population and great natural resources, and each was unprepared to resist attack from within. In the United States free institutions offered the opportunity for unscrutinized conspiracies against the government; in Russia, absolutism had brought

the people to the verge of rebellion.

The Communist ideal had been making headway in the United States since the Haymarket riots in Chicago, in May, 1886. Communistic direction guided the violent campaign waged by the Industrial Workers of the World intermittently in various parts of the United States from the beginning of this century, until the World War either placed their leaders under surveillance or in internment camps or drove them across the border to continue their activities in Mexico.

Conditions in the United States rendered the plan of the Communists abortive, but they succeeded meantime in establishing in Mexico their first working center in the western hemisphere.

The tragedy is that the moral and physical power of the United States has been used, without the knowledge or intention of its people, to create and maintain this menace to western civilization.

Here is the point where we begin to follow the red threads.

Mexico celebrated in August and September, 1910, the centennial of the proclamation of her independence. Official guests, commercial observers and social visitors came from all parts of the world to see the wealth, prosperity and apparent stability of Mexico and to applaud the achievements of Porfirio Diaz, the "Iron Man" who had brought his country out of chaos and made it the leader of Latin America.

In his book "Under Other Flags," William Jennings Bryan said of Porfirio Diaz:

"Education has been promoted, law and order established, agriculture developed, commerce stimulated and nearly every section of the country connected by railroad with the capital. He has been so remarkably successful and has such a hold upon all classes of people that he will doubtless remain at the head of the government as long as he lives. He has a genius for public affairs, understands the conditions and needs of his people, and has their confidence to a degree seldom enjoyed by an executive, either hereditary or elective. He recognizes as did Jefferson that popular education is vital in a republic, and largely through his efforts Mexico sees yearly increase in the number of those who are capable of intelligent participation in government."

Porfirio Diaz was 80 years of age on September 15, 1910. Although his vigor was declining, the Mexican people indicated emphatically their desire that he should continue in power. The Election of 1910 gave him a plurality such as no President of Mexico had ever received.

With the Vice-Presidency it was different. The advancing age of Diaz made it probable that his power would fall to the next Vice-President, and this created a scramble for the second place.

Francisco I. Madero seized the opportunity to write a book, organized a new political party on a platform denouncing the re-election of presidents, and offered himself as a candidate against Diaz.

Madero was a young man of good family. In the United States he would have been described as a "parlor socialist." The American Ambassador later gave this description of him: "Madero

was regarded by those who knew him, and especially by his own family, as a nan of unsound mind and dangerous endencies. He was insignificant in appearance, halting and spasmodic in physical characteristics, stammering in speech, and unable to state any circumstance or opinion lucidly and clearly."

N

o influential people paid attention

to Madero's campaign; but some ill-advised friends of Diaz caused Madero's imprisonment, ostensibly because of financial difficulties in which he had been involved for years. Diaz ordered his release, but it was useless: arrest of a presidential candidate is presumptive evidence of tyranny, and Madero made the most of it. He crossed the border to San Antonio, Texas, and established revolutionary headquarters to raise funds for a military campaign, which was begun in the States of Chihuahua and Sonora under the leadership of Pascual Orozco.

The forces of rebellion were recruited on both sides of the international boundary, in that zone infested by cattle rustlers, horse thieves, smugglers and bandits-a mixed lot which neither Mexico nor the United States would care to claim as citizens.

For a time Madero confined himself to raising funds in San Antonio while Orozco led the guerrilla fighting. When Madero essayed to appear in the open he met decisive defeat at the hands of the federal forces at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. He fled back to San Antonio, and the revolution appeared to be at an end in March and April, 1911.

At this critical moment in the fortunes of Madero, the Communists of the United States came to his assistance in order to transform the political revolution into a class warfare.

From 1900 to 1906, radicals in the United States had a campaign of "direct action" with alarming success, first through the metal and coal mines of the Rocky Mountain region and then to the lumbering districts and to some extent into the agricultural areas of the northwest. Their "boring-from-within" penetrated next the structural iron and steel industries, spreading alarm from coast to coast.

In 1906, they tried their first Mexican experiment forty miles below the Arizona border, at Cananea, State of Sonora, a copper mining town of about 20,000 population. The Communists

(S. Res. 106 66th Congress. Senate. Vol. 11 page 2256)