BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

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BARBAROUS MEXICO
placing of considerable bodies of men in the army, but
as a rule the jcfe politico is the drafting officer and upon
him there is no check. 11e has no system other than to
follow his own sweet will, lie drafts laborers who dare
to strike, editors who criticize the government, farmers
who resist exorbitant taxation, and any other ordinary
citizens who may present opportunities for graft.
As a dumping ground for the politically undesirable,
the conditions within the army are ideal, from the point
of view of the government. The men are prisoners
rather than soldiers and they are treated as such. For
this reason the Mexican army has gained the title of
"The National Chain-gang." While in Diaz-land I
visited a number of army barracks. The barracks at Rio
Blanco are typical. Here, ever since the Rio Blanco
strike, 600 soldiers and 200 ruralcs have been quartered
within the shadow of the great mill, in barracks and upon
ground furnished by the company, an hourly menace to
the miserably exploited workers there.
At Rio Blanco a little captain showed us about—Dc
Lara and I—at the behest of an officer of the manufacturing
company. El Senor Capitan informed us that the
pay of the Mexican soldier, with rations, is $1.90 per
month in American money and that the soldier is always
expected to spend the major portion of this for extra
food, as the food furnished is of too small a variety and
too scarce a quantity to satisfy any human being. The
captain confirmed the reports that I had often heard to
the effect that the soldier, in all his five years service,
never has an hour to himself away from the eye of an
officer, that he is as much a prisoner in his barracks as
is the life-termer in a penitentiary.
The proportion of involuntary soldiers the captain estimated
at 98 per cent. Often, said he, the soldiers, crazy