TOMORROW'S MEXICO

[Music] year in and year out American highways are alive with motorists touring the length and breadth of their own vast country and today more and more Americans are heading south down the panamerican highway into Mexico of the million OD us tourists who have rolled down the pan Highway in the 10 years since it was opened few have the many knowledge of the land and its people above the guide book level to Travelers from the US points of interest many of the more venturesome go to Marvel at paraku the baby volcano which 3 years ago suddenly broke into eruption and grew up out of an astonished Farmer's cornfield standard for all tourists is a glimpse of one of Mexico's numerous religious celebrations in these there still survive many of the ancient rights of the Aztecs Mayans and other Indian peoples who lived in Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish [Music] conquistadores but Mexico's tragic history the effects of 300 years of corrupt Spanish rule the successive struggles which brought Independence but little betterment to the poverty-stricken Mexican people all this is of far too little interest to the ordinary us tourist what most vacationists want is plenty of local color well diluted with modern conveniences and it is in Mexico's capital Center of Tourism that they find them in the most agreeable proportion with enough of the new to look familiar and enough of the old to look foreign Mexico City annually attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists who look for little other than the same amusements they enjoy at home in the nightclubs of the capital Pleasure Seekers who may have raced all the way from the border without getting to know a single Mexican seek shelter with other tourists in gilded surroundings indistinguishable from those they frequented in any us tropis throughout their stay such gadabouts manage to remain thoroughly insulated from any understanding of the country or its people so it surprises you senorita that I am a Mexican why Mexicans are Sinister characters who wear sombreros and fight revolutions and things anyone would take you for an American senorita please I am an American a North American by by geography but I am a Mexican by nationality and very very proud of it behind all the travel folder fad there exists the real Mexico a land and a people still in the throws of a 36-year social upheaval first of the great social Revolutions of our time it began in 1910 overthrowing the old strongman poerio Di who for 30 years had exploited Mexico and sold out its resources to foreigners many men helped shape the revolution the well-meaning Madero who supplanted Diaz the Lusty Bandit panoa and Zapata the idealist president followed president some of them dictators like karanza and kayas a few honest and devoted like oon none of them had succeeded in doing much to help Mexico's people when l cardinus became president in 1934 cardinus found his country virtually a private Preserve of Rich Mexicans and foreign industrialists over 9/10 of its subsoil wealth including its big oil resources were controlled by Foreign interests chiefly American and British profits from these industries were steadily drained away from Mexico and foreign industrialists and investors were able to exert Financial pressure which sometimes has made them more powerful than the Mexican Government itself wealthy land owners or Asados who represented a tiny fraction of the people still held over 90% of Mexico's productive soil on these great farms The Peasants who had always fought their country's battles done its humblest work and lived the hardest lives raped Perpetual poverty and debt in return for Perpetual labor of all the population groups in Mexico the pon had been promised the most and given the least once in office president cardinus lost no time in tackling a new the almost hopeless task of making good the promises of the Revolution acting upon the constitution of 1917 he ordered great asenda broken up by surveyors into the small communal Farms or aidos traditional in ancient Mexico demonstrators were sent out by the government to Cooperative Farms to teach peasants how to operate Machinery in place of the crude tools which had been in use from the time of their ancestors to make more land productive Dam building and irrigation projects were launched by the government but not more than an estimated 15% of Mexico's soil could grow useful crops even though it were artificially watered to raise the people out of ignorance cardinus embarked on an educational program by which he hoped eventually to give every Mexican child a chance to learn at least the three Rs during the six years of his administration thousands of new schools were built but even these were not enough traveling the country from end to end meeting The Peasants and listening to their troubles cardinus became the idol of his people then given strength by his immense popularity he took his boldest step acting on the Constitution which vested all of Mexico's subsoil rights in the state carder sent government agents to appraise and expropriate the Holdings of the foreign oil companies though this move caused Mexico heavy losses in oil revenues and brought strong protests from us and British interests cardist refused to give ground and in the eventual settlement foreign economic domination over Mexico received its first major setback by such measures cardinus aroused in his people a new sense of Pride and Independence but concrete results in improved living standards were still few as he reached the end of his term to succeed him there stepped into office in 1940 a political modus Manuel Aila kamacho as he took over the new president was hailed as a man with a middleof the road position likely to slow down the tempo of Reform and consolidate the gains of his predecessor but the course of Aila cacho's Administration was to be altered before it got well underway with the spread of War to the Western Hemisphere as Mexico declared war on the axis its people found themselves fighting not against the United States which they had so long feared but side by side with [Applause] it Mexico began gearing its industrial resources to the far greater establishment for war production the United States was building and under the direction of a joint us Mexican economic commission made important contributions to the common war effort in return for the use of Mexican materials the US pledged itself to Aid in Mexico's Industrial Development not only during the war but afterwards as well Mexico's mines steadily increased their output of such strategic Metals as zinc lead copper manganese [Music] [Applause] under the stimulus of War Mexico expanded its consumer goods Industries and met all commitments to the Allies carrying out US policy Ambassador George Messer Smith substituted for the old economic imperialism once a source of bad feeling a new spirit of economic cooperation in return Mexico's able foreign minister Ezekiel Padia more than live up to his obligations as a good neighbor cooperation was equally close on the Industrial Level Mexico welcomed the arrival of a mission of us Railway experts to superintend the immense job of rehabilitating its inadequate transportation system out of repair after years of misuse and neglect Mexico's railroads had not only been a handicap in its struggle toward economic progress but had severely hampered the initial stages of the war effort in rebuilding them the Mexicans received technical advice training and equipment from which they will profit for years a period of industrial expansion came to Mexico a once backward agrarian country was moving forward into the modern world at the war's end the Mexican people could count many concrete gains for their country it had grown greatly in Military and industrial strength it had achieved better relations with its neighbors both to the North and South it had won a new and respected position in the world symbolized by its membership in the security Council of the United Nations the Mexico City of today is a boom time Capital signs of affluence are more marked than at any time since the Lush days when Diaz and his politicians were squandering the nation's wealth but in this Prosperity Mexico's common people still have little share to them the gains War brought have as yet scant meaning in the terms they understand security and decent living today all the hopes and aspirations of Mexico's long-suffering common people for material betterment are pinned on the continuation of their economic Revolution on this revolution any political party seeking popular support must base its platform the ax own National which attacks it openly remains a minority party of the Rich and reactionary the mysterious sinista movement which has lost ground since the war would divert the revolution into strongly clerical and fascist channels the Communist party no longer the power at once was seeks to make it more drastic and turn Mexico into a totalitarian anti-clerical State like Russia but by far the most important party is PRI the political machine of the Revolution which under different names has remained in power for 17 years PRI would keep the revolution what it is mildly socialistic and purely Mexican in character and in the 1946 presidential elections it was the PRI candidate Miguel alaman onetime minister of the Interior who was elected to succeed Aila [Music] kamacho but the revolution of which the Mexican people are so intensely and proudly conscious still has a long way to go even today less than half of Mexico's peasants work their own [Music] land irrigation work increased throughout the war but of the 22 million Acres which could be made productive by irrigation only 6 million have so far been reclaimed today aware of the almost insoluble problems in a purely agrarian economy Mexico's leaders are seeking to open up a broader Avenue for development in Industry as a labor pool there are thousands of Mexicans once bound to the land who are now free to turn to Industry for a Better Living but the first requisite of an industrial nation is an educated populace and today all of Mexico is driving ahead on a vast campaign against illiteracy under the leadership of the Ministry of Education the government has set out to teach reading and writing to every man woman and child in a population which a few years ago was nearly 60% illiterate 20 million new readers and copy books in Spanish have been printed by the government and are being distributed throughout every state books of all kinds are being made available to the public in huge quantities and in low priced editions for lack of enough schools and teachers to do the job the government has decreed that every literate citizen of Mexico under penalty of the law must teach at least one other person to read and write or must contribute financially to the program and this law is [Applause] enforced but because the future of Mexico lies less with the old than with the generation Rising it is on the education of the young that the Mexican Government is concentrating its strongest efforts to place education within the reach of all new schools are opening up as fast as funds become available to build them grade schools technical schools colleges where youngsters May learn how to transform the Mexico of the past into the better Mexico of tomorrow and in the progress of Mexico's efforts to strike the bonds of ignorance from a whole people there lies the strongest hope that Mexico's Revolution Will in time achieve its goal democracy self respect and well-being for all [Applause] [Music]