You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday June 22, 1915
From the Appeal to Reason: Interview of Carranza by John Kenneth Turner
John Kenneth Turner
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From the
Appeal to Reason of June 19th,
Hellraisers presents portions of an interview of
General Venustiano Carranza, Mexican Revolutionary, by
John Kenneth Turner,
Appeal correspondent. The more than 3,000 words contained in the interview were cabled to Girard from Vera Cruz, Mexico, via Galveston. Since its publication in the
Appeal, this exclusive interview has been made available to the Associated Press and the United Press in the interest of getting the word out to the American people that there should be no war with Mexico.
General Carranza, himself, has this to say to the America people:
The idea which I desire most to impress upon the American people is that in Mexico no definite and lasting peace can ever be attained unless that peace is based upon justice and the welfare of the majority of Mexicans which the constitutionalist government has seriously determined to establish. Never before has there been attained any other than an ephemeral and artificial peace resulting in restless ambitions and violent oppression. Another idea that I would impress upon the American people and especially upon those of enterprise is that the revolution not only will not injure the interests of America but that the system of equality and legal efficiency that the revolution will implant will be more advantageous and will afford a wider field for foreign investment than the system of privilege and concessions that has existed heretofore. FINALLY, I BELIEVE THAT THE REALIZATION OF THE IDEALS WHICH INSPIRED THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT ONLY BENEFIT THE MEXICAN NATION BUT WILL CONSTITUTE AN IMPORTANT TRIUMPH FOR CIVILIZATION.
From the Appeal to Reason of June 19, 1915:
General Carranza, Through the Appeal,
Pleads Cause of Mexican Revolution
First Chief of Constitutionalist Government Grants An Exclusive Interview to John Kenneth Turner, Appeal Correspondent Now in Mexico-Entire Interview, Covering This Page, Was Cabled to the Appeal So As to Give the American People the First and Complete Statement of the Conditions South of the Rio Grande-Appeal Presents Turner's Questions and Carranza's Answers to Show That American Intervention in Mexico Would be a Crime Against Civilization-War With Mexico Would Benefit Capitalists
-----
BY JOHN KENNETH TURNER
By Special Cable (via Galveston) to the Appeal to Reason
Venustiano Carranza
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VERA CRUZ, MEXICO, June 12.-I have just obtained from Venustiano Carranza, executive head of the apparently victorious constitutionalist party, and exclusive interview far more definite and comprehensive than any he has ever before given to any person or publication.
After a preliminary conversation I presented to General Carranza a series of twenty-one questions. THE BOLD REPLIES ARE MOST REMARKABLE IN VIEW OF THE THREATENING NOTE that had just been sent to Mexico at the behest of rich Americans who fear revocation of their illegal privileges by the new government.
Free land for the millions; the absolute wiping out of every semblance of peonage and debt slavery, abolition of the pernicious system of concessions; the ruthless crushing of private monopolies, whether in the hands of Mexicans or foreigners; universal suffrage including feudal suffrage, and radical labor legislation including a legal maximum workday and minimum wage are some of the immediate reforms that are promised by the Carranza constitutionalists. It must be remembered that when Carranza speaks of enforcing the Mexican constitution he refers to a document that has been characterized as the best formulation of constitutional democracy yet adopted by any country. It must also be remembered that this constitution has never been enforced and that an absolute bureaucracy has been the system of the past.
Without any further comment I present herewith my twenty-one questions with the verbatim answers of General Carranza:
[Note: Hereafter, Hellraisers has eliminated the questions posed by Turner, and has chosen from the twenty-one questions and answers, a few of Carranza's answers that we find most interesting, as space allows us.]
WILL IMPROVE ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.
The betterment of the majority. During previous epochs and despite the liberal laws of Mexico there has existed a privileged class comprised of scarcely over a million people devoted to the exploitation of fourteen millions who have lived in the most grievous oppression. The colonial economic system was based upon the slavery of the native race and this system remained in effect until General Diaz fled the country. To abolish the said system, improve economic conditions, spread education and effectively equalize before he law the fourteen millions who formerly lived a life inferior to that of beasts of burden-THIS IS THE AIM OF THE REVOLUTION.
OPPOSED TO LABOR FOR DEBT.
The complete abolishment of labor as a means of paying debts is one of the conquests already realized by the revolution-a conquest that has won us our most numerous and stubborn enemies. The constitution of the republic provides that no one may be imprisoned because of debts of a civil character and that no one may be obliged to render a personal service without just compensation and his full consent, but the privileged class has already violated these provisions substituting for imprisonment in public jails forcible retention at farm labor and imposing upon the peon against his will the most heart-breaking toil in payment for debts, real or pretended, which often were carried over to the children of the debtors. Farm owners and employers in general have always found in the public authorities a most effective bulwark in maintaining this inhuman system of exploitation. The constitutionalist government has forever abolished this system and has given the slaves their complete liberty.
FREEDOM TO LABOR UNIONS.
The liberty of the wage working class to organize and to strike is recognized by our constitution which declares that nobody may be prevented from associating peacefully for any legal purpose. If it is legal for capital to associate I do not find any reason why it should be illegal for labor to organize. More over, if one man is permitted to abandon his work there is no ground for preventing many men to abandon their work. I believe, however, that strikes will disappear as soon as the working class find in the government the protection that it deserves.
[Emphasis added.]
FOR UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.
I am in favor of universal suffrage without any more restrictions than those absolutely necessary to make effective the vote of every citizen.
FAVORS RESTRICTED WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.
I am a partisan to woman's suffrage in those localities where women have conquered by their education the right to enter political life in Mexico. The peculiar previous conditions of woman, her temperament, her character, which have consecrated her to the home and the education of the family, have prevented her from manifesting a desire to exercise the vote. Nevertheless, some women of high character are beginning to take part in public events. It is a sign of an awakening sense of political affairs among the women.
ZAPATISM MAY SUPPORT CONSTITUTIONALISTS.
The Zapatista problems can be considered as already solved by the constitutionalist government by virtue of the reforms that have already been implanted and those that will be implanted, in accordance with the program of the revolution This program is more liberal and more radical than that of the armed groups known as Zapatistas and only the error of some of the chieftains who victimize the others in favor of reaction, explains the fact that some of them are still fighting us. You may rest assured that the Zapatism will very soon become an ally and a supporter of the constitutionalist government.
WILL ESTABLISH DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.
The transformation of the military government which has been necessary for the maintenance of the actual fighting to a democratic government and also the time when this will be effected have already been provided for in the decree that I issued here in the city of Vera Cruz December 12, as follows:
Article 4.-At the triumph of the revolution when the supreme chieftainship is installed in the city of Mexico and after the election of municipal councils in the majority of the cities of the republic have been held, the first chief of the revolution, charged with executive power, will call an election for the congress of the union, fixing in the call the dates and terms within which said election shall be held.
Article 5.-After the installation of the congress of the union the first chief shall give an account before it on the use he has made of the powers invested in him by the present decree and especially he shall report upon the reforms put into effect during the fight, to the end that the congress may ratify them or amend or amplify them and invest them with the character of constitutional provisions.
Article 6.-The congress of the union shall issue a call for the election of a president of the republic and shall deliver to the person elected the executive powers.
WILL NOT PROTECT FOREIGNER'S LOOT.
The constitutionalists' revolution respects all rights of property acquired in conformity with the law. Our constitution establishes in article 28 that there shall be no monopoly of any kind. As a protection of legal concessions, these monopolies and privileges found in the hands of foreigners cannot subsist. The constitutionalist government will require exact compliance with the law and, therefore, all concessions given by previous administrations can subsist only insofar as they involve legally acquired rights. They will be nullified if they contain privileges or monopolies condemned by the constitution.
CARRANZA TO AMERICAN PEOPLE.
The idea which I desire most to impress upon the American people is that in Mexico no definite and lasting peace can ever be attained unless that peace is based upon justice and the welfare of the majority of Mexicans which the constitutionalist government has seriously determined to establish. Never before has there been attained any other than an ephemeral and artificial peace resulting in restless ambitions and violent oppression. Another idea that I would impress upon the American people and especially upon those of enterprise is that the revolution not only will not injure the interests of America but that the system of equality and legal efficiency that the revolution will implant will be more advantageous and will afford a wider field for foreign investment than the system of privilege and concessions that has existed heretofore. FINALLY, I BELIEVE THAT THE REALIZATION OF THE IDEALS WHICH INSPIRED THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT ONLY BENEFIT THE MEXICAN NATION BUT WILL CONSTITUTE AN IMPORTANT TRIUMPH FOR CIVILIZATION.
[Photographs added.]
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SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-June 19, 1915
(Also source for text blocks within article.)
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
John Kenneth Turner
http://www.findagrave.com/...
Venustiano Carranza
https://en.wikipedia.org/...
Emiliano Zapata
https://en.wikipedia.org/...
See also:
Barbarous Mexico
-by John Kenneth Turner
Charles H. Kerr & Co, 1910
https://archive.org/...
Other books by Turner
https://www.google.com/...
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Juana Gallo songs of the Mexican Revolution
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