STILL A PATIENT

The Shipping Bill, the English debt, and King Tut-Ankh-Amen, leave little room in the newspapers for our neighbor south of the Rio Grande. Mexico recently has passed its second year under the administration of President Alvaro Obregon, revolutionary successor of President Carranza, and impartial observers, with vivid recollections of Madera, Huerta, and Villa, are taking stock.

Obregon's original program has been "national reconstruction, which is to lift Mexico from turbulence and rebellion to a place of dignity and credit among the nations of the world." Today, Mexico admittedly is more at peace than at any time in the last decade. The important revolutionists are dead or in enforced retirement; the Villistas are quiet; lesser malcontents alone still pursue their business sacking small villages, pillaging haciendas, or accepting the money of sanguine rebels on the American side of the border. But peace, prosperity and human perfection are not to be expected all at once. The Mexican army, once given official recognition to distinguish it from the rest of the armed citizenry of the republic, and the war office budget have both been reduced materially in the last two years. Railroad trains no longer carry the bodyguard of regiments.

Economically, Mexico is not so well off. It needs the foreign capital which would undoubtedly follow recognition by the United States, France and Great Britain. General production remains at a low point. Radical elements are strongly entrenched in the steadily widening actives of the Labour unions and strikes have been frequent.

Such would, be the doctor's report on Mexico after the two years of the Obreton treatment. Internal disorders have been checked, leaving the patient sane, if weak. The economic condition is stagnant, but there are distinct signs of improvement, given proper nourishment. Outside complications of an international nature have remained in statu quo. Indications, on the whole, point to a gradual but complete recovery.