"Fearful Compromise"

The National Revolutionary Party of Mexico, the Party which includes the political group in power since Carranza (1914-20), has maintained its popularity since by one policy: Agrarianism, the breaking down of Mexico's great feudal estates, the gift of free land to Mexican peasants. Mexicans were as startled last week to hear ex-President Plutarco Elias Calles urge the temporary abandonment of Agrarianism as U. S. citizens would be should Calvin Coolidge turn Free Trader.

But since the bonds which Mexico has been issuing in order to recompense the former owners of condemned estates are now selling at 29-c- on the dollar, since Mexico's Secretary of Finance Luis Montes de Oca was already in New York last week trying once more to straighten out his country's overpowering national debt, thoughtful Mexicans applauded the change in policy. Said Senor Calles :

"If we wish to be sincere with ourselves we must confess as sons of the Mexican Revolution that Agrarianism, as we have understood it and practiced it hitherto, has been a failure.

"The happiness of farm workers does not consist in handing them a bit of land if they are not fit and do not have the elements necessary to cultivate it.

"Hitherto we have been giving away lands right and left, the only result being the creation for the nation of a fearful compromise -- fearful because the Agrarian bonds in their entirety are in the hands of American bankers. What is graver is that they have reached their hands at the ridiculous price of 14-c- per peso [47.4-c-].

"As those bonds cost the nation annually 5% interest, it can easily be understood that at that rate within the near future we shall have handed over integrally the entire value of our land."

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