In Mexico

Beneath a cloudless sky in the open-air National Stadium on the outskirts of Mexico City, the Executive Power of the United Mexican States passed from General Alvero Obregon to General Plutarco Elias Calles, peacefully elected by the Labor-Agrarian vote.

Without any military display, President Obregon and President-elect Calles left the National Palace in an open barouche, drawn by fine horses with gold-mounted harness, and proceeded along the streets amid the loud plaudits of the assembled public to the Stadium.

As the two Generals entered the Stadium a demonstration for the new President was drowned by the martial strains of the National Anthem. Alighting from the carriage the incoming and outgoing Presidents mounted the carpeted stairs to the grandstand where stood distinguished guests. Among those in the stadium: Senora Obregon, wife of the President; Senorita Obregon, sister; Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor with 300 followers, visiting merchants of New Orleans, etc.

Tense silence reigned in the Stadiu --broken from above by the whirring of airplanes which circled around. jHundreds of pigeons were set free to fly wildly overhead and the air became filled in a twinkling with colored toy balloons. The Generals stood on either side of the Speaker of Congress, who in less than two minutes administered the oath of office to General Calles, who then became Mexico's first Labor President. An instant later artillery belched; 25,000 people cheered; bands again crashed out the National Anthem.

On the platform President and ex-President embraced: Said ex-President Obregon, visibly moved: "At this moment when I embrace you I pray that your administration may be a complete success."

The President, equally moved, returned: "Alvaro, I will be satisfied if I have the same success you have had. May the rest of your days be happy ones, as you have not abused the responsibilities that were entrusted you by the Mexican people. Te compane Dios (God be with you) when you return to the Northern State that gave you to Mexico."

Remarked Samuel Gompers: "It was a wonderful sight. It was a good thing to allow everybody to see the President. Mexico is improving every minute."

The two generals then walked down the stairs, drove to Chapultepre Castle for an informal reception, after which they attended a bullfight.

All that day and all that night the celebrations lasted. Hundreds of coaches, filled with flowers and gay senoritas singing Mexican songs and throwing confetti, passed endlessly up and down the streets.

General Plutarco Elias Calles, "Tiger of the Sonora," is one of those men in whose eyes burn the revolutionary light; yet, of all men, he would probably deny such a contention; he would call it the light of reform.

Enemy of the large landowners, friend of the peons (laborers), socialist, nationalist, he passes among the elite of the "dis"-United Mexican States as a Radical. A Radical? "No," says President Calles, with a powerful, quivering Mexican negative. "Radical ? Nonsense! Radical ? Yes, if the term is clearly understood. I am frankly for giving the exploited Mexican masses a new deal. . . . Property? Of course property and Capital have rights--and rights which must be protected. But in Mexico's past it was considered that property rights were the only rights. . . . We know that Capital will not come unless assured of fair treatment. As far as I am concerned, it shall always have it."

Not only does the President champion the oppressed classes of the Nation with the sword of nationalism and win them with a popular land program, but he goes so far as to protect them against themselves. Here consideration of two points reveals two startling facts: The President, while personally "fond of the bottle," is a staunch prohibitionist and, while a large landowner, is a firm supporter of the land act, which aims at splitting up large estates and dividing them among the landless. In general, his policy is very largely that of his predecessor, ex-President Alvaro Obregon.

Forty-seven years have fled since Plutarco Elias Calles first squalled and puked in the nurse's arms; and at this age of maturity he is found to be a man of energetic action, resolute, ruthless. Well over average height, with the remains of youthful handsomeness still lurking in his face, Senor Calles is at once an imposing figure with an arresting personality. His head is large and his brow deep, usually puckered into, a frown; beneath, two dark eyes flash forth into the world to stir the hearts of men. The mustached mouth--once straight with cruel, thin lips--now droops at the ends, an unmistakable sign of the bodily ailment which has for some time affected him; but the chin--the chin of a fighter, of a leader--is still there.

The heights of the Presidency have not been scaled without difficulty by Senor Calles. And it is interesting to note that, during most of his political career, he has stood in the shadow of one-armed Alvaro Obregon whom many believe to be the greatest Mexican statesman since Benito Juarez, the President who overthrew the Empire in 1867 and ordered shot the unhappy Maximilian, brother of Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria.

Plutarco Calles started life as a school teacher and was for 17 years a persuasive pedagog. In the exercise of his profession, he was imbued with some of that idealism that lit the soul of the late ex-President Woodrow Wilson. But in Mexico of that day he was not understood. From the position of Mayor of Fronteras, the proud Mexican aristocrats forced him. Not a public office was open to him. This drove him to the "soap-box"; and his so-called Radical speeches inflamed the workers to red-hot enthusiasm for him, his enemies to bitter hatred.

In 1911 came the Porfirio Diaz Revolution; Calles was among the first to join against Diaz. Came the fierce revolt against Francisco Madero; Calles rose from the ranks to a colonelcy. Came the Victoriana Huerta Rebellion; General Alvaro Obregon found Calles, made him a general in command of the Sonora army. From this moment, the beneficent shade of Senor Obregon hovered about him. Governor of Sonora he became, and then Cabinet Minister. And, when the snappy struggle against President Carranza began, the Sonora triumvirate-- Obregon, Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta--was in being.

After the revolt, Adolfo de la Huerta became Provisional President ' until Senor Obregon was elected to that dignity. Then peace reigned for three years; and the Sonora triplets were indispensable to one another--Calles as Ministro de la GobernaciOn (Minister of the Interior), de la Huerta as Minister of Finance. In the fourth year of this regime, the 1924 election loomed. Mexicans speculated as to whether Calles or de la Huerta would succeed President Obregon. The latter favored his right-hand man and favorite, General Calles. For a time, de la Huerta also favored him, because, as allegedly arranged, he was to become President after Calles. Then, with peculiar suddenness, de la Huerta rocked the revolutionary cradle of Mexico--the triumvirate was shattered; and, in its ruins, de la Huerta found his political grave. Only one man was left to succeed Obregon; nor did Obregon conceal his satisfaction; for the man was Calles, his friend, his protege, his faithful comrade-in-arms.

And now, big as Senor Calles is, it is conceded that Senor Obregon is bigger. Is Plutarco Elias Calles to be, therefore, a puppet-President? The odds seem to favor it.