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ruins which have been brought to light from under the refuse of centuries and the growth of the implacable jungle we know that the Maya civilization was high, probably as high as that of ancient Egypt. The beauty of these buildings, their strength, and the intricacy of the carving and inscriptions prove that the ancient Mayas combined a developed sense of the artistic with a knowledge of writing and no mean understanding of tools and engineering.

When, on his fourth and last voyage in 1502, Columbus sighted canoes off the coast of Yucatan, he found them filled with the descendants of those ancient Mayas who had lost the civilization, and indeed nearly all knowledge of the civilization, that had been their forefathers'. To-day the Mayas are the laborers of Yucatan, and they live in one-room houses with wattled sides and thatched roofs, probably similar to those in which their ancestors lived who built the splendid palaces for the Maya priests and governors at Uxmal and Chichen Itza.

They are a people who have seen better days, but they are still the best Indians in Mexico. And the mestizos of Yucatanthat is, the people of pretty evenly mixed Indian and Spanish blood-are a better people than the other mestizos of Mexico. Of course, in Mexico nearly every native has some Indian blood in him, but a man in whom the aboriginal strain is not stronger than ten or fifteen per cent is accounted "white."

No doubt Yucatan is only a name to many Americans to whom Mexico is a concrete idea. And to many Mexicans Yucatan is only a name. On the other hand, scorn of "Mexico "as they call all the other States of the country, for they refuse to admit the dependence of Yucatan except for legal purposes is a sentiment popular with the Yucatecans.

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We are not Mexicans, we are Yucatecans," they will tell you, and they will go on to relate that Mexico has never done a thing for Yucatan, never given the State a centavo, while Yucatan has always financed the "mother country.”

It is largely true. Two principal sources of Mexican revenue are the oil-fields of the Tampico region and the henequen-fields of Yucatan.

With henequen as its economic basis has been erected the strangest government in the world to-day. It is a government which combines Socialism with despotism. Salva

dor Alvarado, Governor of Yucatan, is more of a despot than the Czar of Russia or any Oriental potentate, but he has put into practice many of the most radical reforms ever dreamed of by Socialists and social reformers.

Yucatan is used to despots. In the whole history of the State there has been only one Governor whose election was in accord with substantial forms of fairness and legality. But Alvarado is a new kind of despot. No despot in the world's history ever could more justly say, "L'état, c'est moi” than Alvarado, and few if any Mexican despots ever had a better right than he to say that the State was good.

Salvador Alvarado was born in the State of Sinaloa, but at an early age moved to the State of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico. He was a merchant in Cananea when Madero launched his revolution. Alvarado, who is a born radical, joined this movement, and when it was frustrated by the assassination of the little idealist with the big dream, Alvarado joined its continuation as taken up by Carranza. His military career on the west coast was fairly successful, and two years ago he was sent to Yucatan to oust Governor Arguemedo. Arguemedo, although originally a Carranzista, took advantage of an attempt of some Yucatecans to gain national independence for their State to put himself into the position of supreme power. Alvarado defeated Arguemedo, and of course, as his reward, was given the Governorship of the State.

Now there is no railway between Yucatan and Mexico City. To go to the capital the ordinary method is to take a steamer from Progreso to Vera Cruz, and thence continue by rail. The entire journey is a matter of three days. Geographically isolated from the man who has appointed him, and with henequen, one of the richest assets of Mexico, at his command, Alvarado has become virtually an independent monarch in Yucatan.

The full story of how he gained and has kept control of the output of henequen will be told in a later article, but it is too long for recital here. Suffice it to say that he has accomplished this by using an organization called the Comision Reguladora del Mercado de Henequen, or Commission to Regulate the Trade in Henequen. This was theoretically a volunatry organization of the henequen planters which was intended to control the sale of the output of the entire State, but in practice it never worked well. Alvarado,

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The church shown in the picture was used as a fort during the recent revolutionary disturbances; then as a school; it is now used as a hall for banquets and town meetings. The groups of natives have gathered to celebrate the distribution of land

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however, has forced every planter to sell his product to the Reguladora, which then determines at what price the hemp shall be sold to the American manufacturers, who make it into binder twine. Of course the commission of leading planters which ostensibly directs the Reguladora, as it is commonly called, is only a stalking-horse for the Governor. By means of this device Alvarado has acquired the money, and therefore the power, to put into effect his ideas of social reform, which constitute one of the most remarkable bodies of political measures ever tried anywhere in the history of the world. With the financial sinews derived from the sale of henequen in the United States Alvarado, who has barred Carranza's national money from the State, has been able to keep his State currency almost at its face value of two to one—that is, two pesos for one American dollar. On the other hand, Carranza's successive issues have dropped almost to worthlessness-a course his latest issue is rapidly following, it would seem, for it is at more than sixty to one as this is written.

To begin with, Alvarado turned his attention to the Church. Yucatan has never been as "religious " as the other States of Mexico. For instance, Merida, a city of eighty thousand and the capital of Yucatan, has never had more than twelve churches, whereas, for instance, Puebla, with a population of ninety-five thousand, has more than sixty churches. But in Yucatan, as in most of Mexico, the Church had become to some degree corrupt and had meddled in politics.

To say this is not to criticise the Catholic Church in general. Placed as that Church is in Mexico, with virtually no competitors and with the great bulk of the people as its adherents, any other church would have been guilty to some degree of the same abuses that have stained the history of the Catholic Church. In an article published recently in The Outlook the Archbishop of Yucatan declared that the Church in that State has not meddled in politics. But such was not the testimony of many fair-minded Yucatecans with whom I talked, themselves Catholics. When Alvarado was advancing through the country in his campaign against Arguemedo, the priests, as the Aztec priests did in ancient wars, openly exhorted the people against the man who was coming to punish the usurper. It was not strange, then, that they were among the first to feel his wrath.

Two years ago there were more than a

hundred priests and many nuns in Merida alone. To-day there are five priests and no nuns in the whole State. To-day religious services are held in only four churches in the State, and those are in Merida. Priests, nuns, and Archbishop have fled, and nunneries, convents, monasteries, and churches have been bought or confiscated by the State. As a rule, the Governor paid for these properties, but at that time depreciated Carranza money was the legal tender of the State, and the young social reformer of thirty-six told me with a chuckle how he acquired properties worth three hundred thousand dollars for a few thousand dollars gold.

If some fair-minded observers in Yucatan to-day are shocked at some things the Governor has done to the Church, they are forced to praise what this despot has done in other directions.

In Yucatan there are four hundred henequen ranches. These ranches vary in extent from a few hundred to seven thousand acres. and employ from twenty to several hundred laborers. Each ranch is a separate community, and the haciendas are practically the subsidiary governmental divisions of Yucatan. If the peons are to get education, they must get it on the ranch, for to leave the ranch often means a walk of several miles.

Before Alvarado came into power every hacienda had its chapel, but only eleven had schools. To-day all the hacienda chapels are closed, but every ranch has a public school for the children of the laborers, and the larger ranches often have several schools. Including the town and city schools, there have been founded by Governor Alvarado in the eighteen months that he has been in power no less than eleven hundred public schools. And this by the same man who has closed the churches.

In fact, in the great need of getting buildings and equipment for the schools churches have often been utilized for this purpose. In the same way churches have been used for other practical purposes.

The Governor's favorite hobby is the improvement of the conditions of the lower classes, especially of the laboring classes. He has helped labor to get its just deserts, but he has prevented it from getting more than its fair share of the profits of industry, and for this reason he is as unpopular with some labor leaders as he is with the millionaire henequen planters who are forced to sell their henequen to the State at the State's price. But the common laborer loves Alvarado for what the

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A SOCIALISTIC DESPOT IN YUCATAN

Governor has done for the common laborer. He has put an end to peonage, that form of debt slavery little less injurious to society than chattel slavery. He has established the eight-hour day in all industries. He has established compulsory arbitration for disputes between capital and labor.

Even the bitter enemies of the Governor who are honest and intelligent praise him for establishing prohibition, or "beer temperance," in the State. On many street corners in Merida are buildings labeled Salón Cerveza (beer saloon). But since Alvarado came out of the north all drinks stronger than beer have been taboo, and Yucatan society has profited thereby.

No doubt many people in the United States associate disrespect for formal established religion with intemperance and all kinds of immoral traits, and think that in a character in which the first is shown the others must lurk. These people would be surprised if they went to Yucatan. The same Governor who has closed the churches has closed the hard-liquor saloons. In fact, in his judgment of their effect on the character of the people he places the two institutions in the same category.

But explanation is required here. Four churches, one in each of the four principal quarters of the city, are permitted to hold services. And the Governor has promised that these churches will have his protection so long as the attention of their priests is directed solely to "saving souls" and not to directing the affairs of State. A freethinker himself, Alvarado declares that others may think and worship as they please so long as they do not interfere with his government.

Still

The most flagrant injuries which the Church has suffered have been dealt by the people, not by the Governor directly. he admits that his preachings were the people's inspiration when, more than a year ago, a meeting of labor unions adjourned to go from church to church tearing idols from their niches, burning those which would burn, and strewing church floors with the fragments of others. Now the average religious image in Mexico is not a work of art.

But among those destroyed in this debauch of prejudice were some historical treasures. To deprive civilization of such relics is as unpardonable as the act of the first Spanish Bishop in Yucatan, who destroyed the priceless records of the old Indian civilization. And of course the ultimate effect of such senseless destruction is to hamper honest and intelligent reform.

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Indeed, such an effect has already been felt, and many citizens who approve most of Alvarado's acts condemn him for his harshness toward the Church. But in general, aside from this wanton destruction, the average male Yucatecan with whom I talked seemed to feel that the Church got only "what was coming to it." If a priest enters politics, he can at best expect only to exchange the respect which he may command as a spiritual leader for the temporal power of the successful ward boss. And if his party is defeated, he has no right to expect that the fact of his priesthood will save him from the fate meted to all defeated politicians in Mexico.

To-day the churches of Yucatan are being used more materially than spiritually. For instance, in the rural districts the most common use made of them is as schools. In Merida one is used as a club-house by the Masons, who backed the revolution of Carranza and are now enjoying the fruits of victory; another houses a students' club, another is the headquarters of the Bricklayers' Union, a fourth is a storehouse for the alcoholic liquors confiscated in the enforcement of the new temperance law, a fifth has been torn down to make room for a park for the people, while the impressive and lofty Cathedral is filled with canned meats and vegetables imported against a siege which was expected from the Americans during the war scare which followed the fight at Carrizal in June. The Bishop's palace, adjoining the Cathedral, is being renovated and remade into the Palace of Art, where the boys and girls of Merida may study sculpture, music, and painting! And connecting the Palace and the Cathedral an arch has been built, called the Arch of the Revolution, to commemorate the victories of Alvarado and Carranza.

The rationalist, freethinker, or whatever he chooses to call himself-in short, the person who accepts no established religion and who hopes eventually for the abandonment of all churches and fixed creeds, and the substitution of schools and flexible philosophieswill think he has found the millennium if he goes to Merida to-day.

And the surprising thing is that the people are doing very little worrying about the loss of their churches. In Mexico the women have always been the mainstay of the Church, and in Merida most of the complaints against the Governor for his Church policy come from women. It might be thought that the sudden reduction of the number of churches from twelve to four in a city of eighty thousand

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GENERAL SALVADOR ALVARADO, GOVERNOR OF YUCATAN, AT A NATIVE FIESTA The costumes worn by the women on each side of the Governor are the distinctive dress, called the hipil, of the

mestizo and Indian women. Note the elaborate embroidery

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A PUBLIC SCHOOL ON A HENEQUEN PLANTATION, FOR THE EMPLOYEES' CHILdren Several hundred of these schools have been established by Governor Alvarado

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