Page:Margaret Shipman - Mexico's Struggle Towards Democracy (1927).pdf/63

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retain such lands during their lifetime but may not transmit it to their heirs, In the case of corporations, the land must be disposed of within a certain number of years.

The chief labor organization is the Confederacion Regional Obrera Mexicana (C. R. O. M.), claiming 1,000,000 members, Other unions total two or three hundred thousand members.[1] The C. R. O. M. includes 200,000 members of the Yucatan Liga de Resistencia, 100,000 mine and factory workers and a large number of agricultural workers. It is a federation, somewhat on the plan of the A. F. of L. but more loosely organized and broader and more socialistic in spirit. The Catholic workers are organized by priests with a pledge to respect the fundamentals of society, i. e., religion, family, country, and property, and are, of course, intended to undermine the true labor organizations.

Although, in general, the labor code of the constitution has not been put into action, several states have passed laws embodying its chief provisions and in some localities progress has been made in enforcement.

The annual budget for education has been increased to 50 million pesos, more than five times that of any previous administration. The number of schools is over 12,000, with 25,000 teachers and more than a million pupils. A great effort is being made to reach rural communities, if only for a few weeks in the year, with extension courses giving instruction in agriculture as well as in reading, writing, and the arts in which Mexicans are gifted.[2]


  1. International Labor Directory, 1925, Mexico.
  2. Vasconcelos, Survey Graphic, May, 1924, pp. 167–71, Saenz and Priestley, Op. Cit., pp. 62–74.

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