MEXICO'S HALF-TIDE

Today the negotiations with Mexico reach a conclusive stage. Indications point to the acceptance by the Mexican Congress of President Harding's demand for guarantees, which will remove the last material barrier in the way of our recognition of President Obregon's government. It is hard for Americans to appreciate any Mexican Government, Mexico City itself is a capital as beautiful and civilized as any in the world. General Obregon is an educated, cultivated man of the world, of considerable ability. He is doing his best to establish a firm, united government. As he remarked jokingly to a delegation of American business men who visited him recently "Gentlemen, you will and me better than my predecessors, You notice I have only one arm, so naturally I can't sted as much as the other men!" what has held up recognition heretofore has been a lack of confidence in the ability of the party in power in Mexico to back up its guarantees.

But the whole difficulty in Mexico lies far deeper; it is the total lack of any strong tradition to use as a cornerstone in building up a government, English speaking peoples have established themselves into strong, firmly-knit nations all over the world, and the underlying secret of their success has been the Angio-Saxon tradition of the common law, as deeply ingrained as the English stock itself. Germans have held together through common inheritance of the agelong tradition of loyalty to the chief, handed down from the wandering tribes of the "Germania" in Tacitus's day. France, shaken by revolutions half a dozen times in the last hundred and thirty years, has emerged with a strong central government through the triumphant tradition of the Roman Law and Gallic belief in the sacredness of property. But Mexico has none of these. The degenerate, confused Latin tradition of the Gonquistadores had not time to become rooted in the semi-barbarous Mexican soil before the yoke of Spain was thrown off; and poor as that tradition was there has been nothing since to take its place. That the United States could go into Mexico, take over the government completely, and forcibly graft onto the nation a tradition of government, is generally admitted. The advisability and ethics of such action can be left to the sociologists to decide. The question remains: can any people inheriting no strong tradition of government, starting from a disorganized condition, left entirely to themselves, gradually emerge?

The attitude of the past administration towards Mexico was an answer to this question in the affirmative, and the present one is likely to follow suit. But people impatient of the delay in recognition must realize the cause. Can Mexico adjust herself to modern conditions? Russia, throwing off her autocratic tradition, is at present in a chaotic state; but Russia's salvation lies in the fundamentally sound unit, the zemstvi, and she can build from the ground up. Mexico has not even this for a foundration. At any rate, recognition by the United States will give the Obregon government much needed support in a critical time. The task may be too much for them, but at least, they should be given all possible aid in working out their own salvation, if they can.