Monday, May 5, 2014

Today in the Sobel Timeline: May 5

On May 5, 1896, Harry Doxey of the Jefferson Courier, one of Chief of State Benito Hermión's strongest supporters, and a proponent of the Moral Imperative, wrote a column praising Hermión's earlier conquest of Guatemala and New Granada: "The people there have had their chance for greatness, and have failed due to a lack of the divine spark. Mexico possesses such inspiration, and therefore will carry Civilization southward."

On May 5, 1929, Governor-General Henderson Dewey gave a vitavised address on his planned reform of the National Financial Administration. Dewey wished to decentralize the N.F.A., and direct that more of its financings be made in the C.N.A.'s rural confederations, to "bring the N.F.A. to more people, to increase its usefulness, not detract from it."

Also on this day, President John Jackson of Kramer Associates announced that the company would be undergoing a major restructuring. The object of the restructuring was to frustrate an impending attempt by Mexican President Pedro Fuentes to reduce the company's control over Mexican politics and society. In his announcement, Jackson said, "After three years in this chair I have learned that no one man can run this business or even understand it completely. For this reason the board and I have decided to deploy power much in the same way as a general deploys troops, or a bank its assets. There isn't much more I can tell you right now, gentlemen, but I can assure you that Kramer Associates will look quite different in the 1930s than it does today."

The Mexico City Times reported on Jackson's press conference the next day.

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