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the government of this country shall not interfere in the affairs of Mexico and other Latin American republics" and declaring that the party was "unalterably opposed to the powers of this nation being used to buttress any foreign despotism." In the spring of 1911 President Taft massed troops on the frontier and seemed to be preparing to come to the rescue of Diaz. In March the Socialist National Executive Committee issued a manifesto headed "Withdraw the Troops!" reviewing the situation and calling for a popular protest against intervention. Many unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, as well as more radical labor organizations, joined in distributing copies of this manifesto, holding mass meetings, and sending addresses to the President and Congress. In April Representative Berger submitted a petition for the recall of the troops, with 87,600 signatures, and introduced a joint resolution to the same effect the first Socialist resolution ever presented in the United States Congress. The party convention of 1912 reaffirmed the demand for non-interference. Early in 1914 the Tampico affair was the pretext for a very strenuous effort through the capitalist press to create enthusiasm for a Mexican war, but this attempt was defeated through vigorous Socialist and Labor agitation, which was made more effective by the fact that the Ludlow Massacre had roused intense feeling against the military. In the meantime, the publication of "Barbarous Mexico" by John Kenneth Turner, of "The Mexican People: Their Struggle for Freedom" by De Lara and Edgcumb Pinchon, and of numerous articles by Sarabia, John Murray, Carlo de Fornaro, and others had done much to educate American public opinion.

Carranza's Reforms.

By the spring of 1916 the Carranza government appeared to be fairly well established, and had given evidence of a serious intention to carry out a program of social reform. Among the important federal decrees was one compelling oil companies to report fully on their operations; one for testing the titles to great landed estates; one providing for public free schools throughout the republic; and one regulating the liquor trade-which, in fact, was prohibited in fourteen states. In several states still more radical measures were taken. In Sonora all concessions granted by Huerta and Villa were declared void, and the state took charge of the operation of certain disputed mines; the right of labor organization was recognized and a minimum wage decreed. In Vera Cruz the formation of trade unions was authorized under legal regulation; and a commission was set up with power to enforce maximum prices for necessaries of life. In Yucatan

large estates were repurchased at a valuation fixed by the state, and the land so acquired was divided into small tracts, given to peons in use, subject to an annual tax, the title remaining in the state and possession being conditioned on actual cultivation; a co-operative society of sisal growers was formed, with state backing, to free them from their dependence on the American fibre trust; the old "cuentas" or standing accounts against peons were cancelled, the law forbidding them to leave an employer while in debt to him was repealed, and a new labor law was put in force, providing for a maximum workday and minimum wage, for accident compensation and maternity protection, and encouraging the formation of trade unions. The first convention of women ever held in Mexico took place early in 1916, and a woman's paper, "La Mujer Mexicana," sprang up at the capital.

As is natural in view of its youth, the Mexican labor movement is still in a somewhat unstable condition, and neither its policies nor its forms of organization are yet clearly defined. In some cases it appears to be only tolerated by the government, in others to be patronized and even perhaps controlled. In Yucatan there are unions of bakers, cooks and waiters, carpenters, clerks, dockers, electricians, hackmen, masons, machinists and boiler makers, railway workers, sailors, and smeltermen; their organ is "La Voz de la Revolucion," at Merida, edited by Baltasar Pages; the chief of the state department of labor is Carlos Loveira. In the city of Mexico Dr. Atl edits "Accion Mundial," the chief organ of the "Casa del Obrero Mundial” (literally, the House of Labor of the World), one of the two national labor federations. The other is the "Confederacion de Sindicatos Obreros" or Federation of Labor Unions, which has its headquarters at Vera Cruz, with Ursulo Galvan and Joaquin Mendizal as its secretaries. The former of these two bodies seems to represent the syndicalist tendency, the latter to be modeled after the A. F. of L. It is not yet possible to give any statistics as to membership.

Averting War.

The Villista raid into New Mexico renewed the danger of war, as it was obviously meant to do. When American troops were sent across the border, and still more in June when they were pushed far into the interior and mobilization of the militia was begun, a very critical situation was created. The Socialists of the United States again rose to the occasion, and this time they were much less than in the earlier crises. The Pacifist organizations, which had gained strength in consequence of the European war, took vigorous action.

Still more important, Organized Labor in the United States, recognizing the growing menace of militarism at home, and wishing well to the young labor movement in Mexico, bestirred itself to maintain peace. Pressure was brought to bear on the Wilson Administration, and at the same time President Gompers formally asked Carranza to ease the situation by freeing his American prisoners, which he instantly did. Great labor-peace meetings were held in both countries, fraternal greetings were exchanged, and proclamations published declaring that only the enemies of labor desired war. In the first days of July there was held at Washington the first international conference between accredited representatives of the American Federation of Labor and of the two Mexican national organizations named above. It seems certain that this action had much to do with averting actual war, and it will probably have still more far-reaching effects. Loveira and Pages immediately sailed for South America, bearing credentials from both the American and the Mexican federations, and stating that their mission was to promote closer relations among the organized workingmen of the whole Western Hemisphere, corresponding to the development of a Pan-American capitalism.

PORTO RICO.

In Porto Rico a Socialist movement, led by Santiago Iglesias and Eduardo Conde, appeared immediately after annexation, and was represented in the first convention of the Socialist Party of America, at Indianapolis in 1901. This attempt seems to have been premature. Its definitely socialistic character soon faded away, leaving a small but fairly vigorous trade-union movement, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. In 1908, however, a Workers' Party, accepting the principles of Socialism, was formed in Arecibo. It polled 702 votes that year; by 1914 it had extended its activities to the whole island and polled 4,398 votes, threefourths of them in Arecibo, where it won a majority in the city council. In March, 1915, the first convention was held at Cayey, with fourteen local sections represented. It was decided to affiliate with the Socialist Party of America, and Esteban Padilla was elected as president and Manuel Rojas as secretary of the organization. Early in 1916 some 20,000 workers on the sugar plantations struck for the eight-hour day and an increase of wages, the existing rate being only 50 or 60 cents for a twelve-hour day. Great indignation was caused by the conduct of the island police, who attacked the strikers' parades and hall meetings at several places, killing

five and wounding more than twenty men, women, and children. The A. F. of L. Executive protested to President Wilson, and Congressman London also took the matter up in Congress.

URUGUAY.

Uruguay is the smallest, the most densely peopled, and in many respects the most progressive of the South American republics. Land ownership is widely distributed, and this has strengthened the workings of political democracy. Onefourth of the population is in the capital, Montevideo, which is an important shipping point and has large meat-packing, glass, leather, paper, and other industries. The Socialist and Labor movement is mostly confined to this city. The Socialist party was organized in 1905. In 1911, with the aid of the Radicals, it elected Prof. Emilio Frugoni to the Chamber. In 1914, however, Radical support was withdrawn and at the same time the party was attacked by Anarchists in the Labor Federation, with the result that the seat was lost. The party has about 500 dues-paying members and two weekly papers, its organ being "El Socialista," published at the capital.

In the French colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Guyana there are active Socialist groups. The two latter have each sent a Socialist to the Chamber of Deputies at Paris (Légitime and Franconie, respectively) and in Martinique there is one Socialist, Lagrosillière, in the colonial legislature and several in municipal councils.

SOUTH AFRICA.

The Act of Union vested the executive government in the King and his successors, a Governor-General advised by an executive council and ministers of state. Legislative power was vested in a Parliament composed of the King, a Senate of forty members, eight nominated for 10 years by the Governor-General in council, and eight elected from each original province by the two Houses of the Colonial Legislature sitting together; and a House of Assembly consisting of members chosen as follows: From the Cape Colony 51; Natal 17; Transvaal 36; Orange Free State 17. The Governor-General has the power to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament, which meets annually.

Only since the Act of Union of 1909, when the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, Natal and the Cape Colony were merged in the Union of South Africa has South Africa evolved a united political and economic labor movement. This movement, at least that part of it which represents the coal and metal mining industries, directs its attacks equally against the capitalist exploiters and its colored competitors.

The colored population forms by far the larger portion of the population, 4,700,000 out of less than 6,000,000. According to law they can become neither miners nor engineers. Because diamond mining is a very lucrative employment, the whites of South Africa thus hope to create a monopoly for themselves in this industry. What was done by law in the mining industry, has been accomplished in all other industries, at least wherever skilled labor is employed. The labor union movement, therefore, is white and anti-color.

The founding of the Labor Party of South Africa at the end of 1909 seemed to promise much for the future of the labor movement. In 1910 four representatives were elected, and soon after, the important city of Johannesburg went almost completely labor-socialistic at a municipal election. But a bitter struggle soon arose between capital and labor, in which the government under Louis Botha took a frankly one-sided stand. The militia was placed at the disposal of the capitalists to help them win their fight. Sharp conflicts were frequent in 1913. The government sought to end the trouble by deporting, without trial, a number of the leading labor leaders. A general strike was the immediate answer. Bitter recriminations arose in Parliament when Creswell, the leader of the Labor Party, sharply attacked the Botha government. An election held soon after resulted in a gratifying increase for the Labor Party. In the Transvaal, where the strike movement had been most bitter, 23 out of 25 elected deputies were members of the Labor Party. There the vote of the Labor Party was 26,108, of the Conservatives 12,305, of the Nationalists 3,029. In the Transvaal the Parliament consists of only 45 members, so that the Labor Party had the majority and, in consequence, control of the government. When the war broke out the prospects for the general election of 1915 were very bright, but the war caused a split in the movement. Creswell, who was on his way to England to secure the assistance of the Labor movement of Great Britain, returned immediately, joined Louis Botha's army and went with it on its campaign to South West Africa. This called forth decided protests from those members of the working-class who refused to acknowledge an armistice between capital and labor. The dispute culminated in the resignation of twenty of the leading members of the party, among them W. H. Andrews, just before the election of July, 1915. These comrades published a manifesto in which they declared that international solidarity was more important than the triumph of Great Britain's armed forces. Instead of the seven members, who had been members of the last Parliament, only four were returned. Neither "Major" Creswell nor Andrews were re-elected. The Inter

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