What's What

(See front cover)

It would have been silly to write a Who's Who In Mexico last week, because in the U. S. were:

The President-Elect of Mexico, Senor Pascual Ortiz Rubio, with his wife, two sons, one daughter, his sister-in-law, her son, and a suite of 12.

The President-Reject of Mexico, Senor Jose Vasconcelos, with son and daughter.

Mayor Dr. Manuel Puiz y Casaurane of Mexico City, with his wife.

"The Mexican Lindbergh" Colonel Pablo Sidar, circumnavigator of South America, alone.

General Manuel Perez Trevino, President of the Grand Revolutionary Party, which has won every Mexican election since it was founded in 1920.

The Governor of the State of Mexico, Senor Filberto Gomez.

The Governor of the State of San Luiz Potosi, Senor Saturnino Cedilla.

The Governor of the State of Vera Cruz, Senor Alberto Tejeda.

The Revolutionist-Extraordinary of Mexico, General Jose Gonzalo Escobar.

"Such a concentration of prominent Mexicans north of the Rio Grande," said Mexico City's famed Universal, "is probably unprecedented in the history of the two republics. . . . Happy augury. . . . We can thank Ambassador Morrow. . . ."

Opportunist. The dark and tousled head of Revolutionist-Extraordinary General Jose Gonzalo Escobar, who arranged for the killing of 4,000 Mexicans by each other last spring, lay several nights last week on a spotless pillowcase at No. 7750 Colfax Ave., Chicago, home of Vice President Merwin Crawford of Crawford & Associates (printers).

"I met the General at a banquet in Texas ten years ago," said Printer Crawford, "and for the next three or four years I spent a few days every year with him at Juarez where he was a corps commander. He fled from Mexico when Federalist troops were trying to put him in front of a firing squad. Right now he is the most peaceful-minded man in the United States. He has put away his sword and his pistol and is looking for business opportunities--possibly in Chicago. He left my house this morning and I can't say where he is now."

Always an able seizer of opportunities, General Escobar tapped the Bank of Montreal in Mexico for $108,000 before his revolution, sent the money to the U. S. where opportunities are brightest.

Scrub Joke. When it is 6:55 a.m. at Gettysburg Academy in Pennsylvania, two short, swart Mexican youths tumble out of their beds and then proceed to make them. They agree with President Hoover that their father is the one and only President-Elect of Mexico. They are studious Guillermo Rubio, 18, and athletic Fernando, 17.

"I like football," grins Fernando, "I am of the what-you-call scrubs. It is much exercise, no?"

''We bought an old what-you-call flivver last fall," reminisces Guillermo. ''For weeks we rode around making much fun. But one day the flivver broke down six miles from Gettysburg and we left it there for a good joke."

"Digestive Discomfort." Physicians of Baltimore's famed Johns Hopkins Hospital thumped and scrutinized the President-Elect, last week, paying particular attention to his stomach. Senora Rubio was inspected by other doctors. The rest of the President-Elect's party slept in 14 rooms at the Hotel Belvedere. In Mexico the public had been led to suppose that something fairly serious is the matter with the stomach of the man they have elected President. But Dr. Charles R. Sutrian of Johns Hopkins curtly dispelled this illusion. "Examination shows a certain amount of digestive discomfort," said he, ''but nothing of any serious importance. The patient is not confined to his bed, and no surgical operation of any kind is contemplated." There also seemed to be nothing in particular the matter with Senora Rubio, but she and Senor Ortiz Rubio stayed on at Johns Hopkins, enjoying the appetizing food, complimenting their nurses on the excellent service, daily receiving from Mexicans throughout the U. S. expensive baskets of flowers. Later he was able to pay a Christmasday call on President Hoover in Washington.

Lucky 13. Under Mexican law the first five voters who appear at a polling booth on election morn are the legal guardians of that booth for the rest of the day. In Baltimore last week friends of General Manuel Perez Trevino, President of the Grand Revolutionary Party, congratulated him on the fact that voters of his party were first at every single polling booth in Mexico City and at most throughout Mexico. The count gave President-Elect Ortiz Rubio 13 times as many votes as all other candidates combined. Only 19 people were killed in the entire republic in polling arguments. Legal Advisor to the U. S. Embassy George Rublee, who accompanied Ambasasdor Morrow back to the U. S., said recently, "The recent Mexican election was the fairest ever held."

Confidential Engineer. The Hoover of Mexico was born at Morelia, capital of the State of Michoacan in 1877 of a rich, aristocratic family who trace their descent back to 1545. He graduated with an engineer's degree from the University of Mexico, entered the Army, was gazetted Captain in 1911, Brigadier General in 1920. "The late President Carranza," writes one Mexican historian, "frequently employed him [Ortiz Rubio] on engineering work of a confidential nature and also for strategic enterprises."

In 1917 he was appointed Governor of his home state, Michoacan, in 1923 Minister to Germany, in 1925 Ambassador to Brazil, at which time he was dean of the Mexican Diplomatic Corps. Returning to Mexico he announced that he would no longer use the title "General," and much was made during the recent campaign of the fact that Mexico was electing a civilian president. In certain states where the "transition in idealism" was feared to be incomplete, however, handbills were issued extolling the merits of "Senor Pascual Ortiz Rubio, Engineer & General."

Silent Howls. Soon after the Hoover of Mexico was elected he received an invitation to visit the U. S. from Thomas W. Lament, Chairman of the International Committee of Bankers concerned with Mexico's unpaid foreign debt. At that time Senor Ortiz Rubio told correspondents he had wired Mr. Lament: "In case I am able to accept your invitation I will advise you in ample time." But, when he left Mexico, the President-Elect said nothing about the invitation, declared that he was going for his health to Johns Hopkins, and has denied repeatedly that he is in the U. S. to seek refinancing of the debt. En route he stopped off for lunch with Mr. Lamont in Manhattan (TIME, Dec. 23), and after seeing President Hoover in Washington will return to Wall Street. If Finance Minister Luiz Montes de Oca should hasten from Mexico City to be in New York at that time, and several correspondents have predicted that he will, the weather would be getting thick indeed. At least the President-Elect has come straight to headquarters, cannot be accused of taking a correspondence course in what the U. S. wants him to do, a course in which too many Presidents of Mexico have flunked. Speaking of the U. S. last fortnight he said: "We" Mexicans . . . know that this is the school for Mexicans."

Finance Minister Luiz Montes de Oca's budget for the next Mexican year was recently published. He plans to pay the International Bankers an installment of 26,000,000 pesos ($13,000,000) on what is owed them, whereas in 1929 they received $17,000,000, and the year before $16,250,000. This drastic reduction is accounted for by the Mexican Government's enormous expenditures in putting down the Escobar Revolution and the consequent depletion of Treasury funds. As a Mexican satiric weekly said: "The bankers are silently howling for more money."

President Squelches Briton. Chief event in Mexico last week was the settlement by bullnecked, square-jawed President Emilio Fortes Gil of a strike which has paralyzed for a fortnight the British-owned Mexicano Railway, vital link between Mexico City and the major Mexican port of Vera Cruz. The Mexican Chamber of Deputies passed a resolution approving the strike as fully in accord with the ideals and aspirations of the Grand Revolutionary Party. Police prevented British Manager J. D. W. Holmes of the Mexicano Railway from hiring strike breakers. Finally President Fortes Gil intervened and settled the strike by decreeing that: 1) The company shall pay employes their full wages for the period they were on strike; 2) The company must sign a "collectivist contract" with the men, within 45 days, giving them a voice in the administration of the railway. It was this demand which Manager Holmes had fought tooth & nail until overawed by the Chief Magistrate of the Republic.

"Land for the Poor!" A second major event of the week was announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture that Morelos is the first Mexican state in which the ''agricultural aspirations" of the Grand Revolutionary Party may be considered as virtually realized. Some 68% of the state's land area of 1,300,000 acres has been expropriated from the former capitalist owners and distributed to 26,381 campesinos or "small farmers" in accordance with party slogan: "Land for the poor!" These recipients of the Government's bounty comprise 69% of the state's inhabitants. They should prove a formidable factor in ensuing elections. "No land owner of U. S. nationality was affected by the expropriations," continued the Ministerial statement. "Of the 62 capitalists dispossessed one was Italian, six were Spaniards, and the rest Mexicans."

"Boss" Calles' Revenge. The "Political Boss" of Mexico is former President Plutarco Elias Calles, co-founder of the Grand Revolutionary Party with the late, great, assassinated President Alvaro Obregon. Last week he had revenge on District Attorney John A. Vails of Laredo, Tex., who had wished to arrest him on a murder charge as his special train passed through that city (TIME, Dec. 23), and who had denounced Calles to U. S, Secretary of State Henry L Stimson as "the greatest exponent of Bolshevism in the Western Hemisphere."* Back in Mexico after a pleasure trip to Europe, General Calles was received like a conquering hero.

His revenge: the Mexican consulate and border station at Laredo were closed, with a prospective loss in trade to Laredo citizens of $30,000 for every day the barrier remained closed (see p. 14). It was announced that they would remain closed "until respect and comfort are guaranteed Mexican officials passing through Laredo "

* Two years ago, former Under Secretary of State George Edwin Olds issued the now famous State Department handout to the press in which the Government of President Calles was referred to as a "Bolshevist hegemony."

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