Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/81

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MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
65

Royle, correspondent of the Associated Press, an American citizen, made himself persona non grata to the government in power in that country by telegraphing out of the country an article of news value which had appeared in one of the newspapers published in Mexico City. This American citizen was arbitrarily loaded upon a passenger coach, a guard was stationed on each platform and he was compelled to remain there until the train arrived at a frontier town, whence he was forced to leave the country.

Second, the fact that such a provision as this could become part of the organic law shows how utterly the party now in power fails to conceive of the most rudimentary principles of democratic government. No people who have any correct conception of democracy could for a moment contemplate the possession of such arbitrary power, from the exercise of which no appeal is provided, by any member of its government.

The pledge regarding religious toleration, contained in the letter of Mr. Arredondo to the Secretary of State already quoted, will be recalled. That pledge was undoubtedly accepted as satisfactory by our Secretary of State and by our President when, following its receipt, he recognized the Carranza power as the de facto government of Mexico. This, like all other pledges made by the Carranza party, was violated by the new constitu-