CALLES ASSAILED BY VALENZUELA; Candidate Denounces Alleged Privileges of Former Mexican President's Friends.

 DECLARES GRAFT GENERAL Three Foreigners Ordered Deported for Catholic Manifestations-- 236 Priests Register. Proclaims Fight on Privilege. Congress Considers Speech. Valenzuela Accused of Revolt Plot.

 

 MEXICO CITY, Feb. 13–1929. Gilberto Valenzuela, candidate for President, formerly Minister of the Interior in the Calles Cabinet and until recently Minister to Great Britain, has denounced the policies and methods of his former chief in a scathing campaign speech at Hermosillo in the State of Sinaloa, where he is touring at present. The charges are somewhat of a bomb thrown into the Mexican political tangle, especially as President Emilio Portes Gil has declared the Calles policies his own, and the recent transfer of authority to him in complete tranquility was hailed in most quarters as auguring well for the peace, progress and prosperity of Mexico. 

"This struggle is not going to be between Gilberto Valenzuela, Aaron Saenz [of the Calles party] and Ortiz Rubio, but Valenzuela against Plutarco Elias Calles," said Señor Valenzuela, "and I wish to state right now that Gilberto Valenzuela does not fear Calles. Valenzuela will be serene and resolute in facing its agents and that school of corruption which is staining everything and placing them in danger not only the welfare but the very life of the Republic." 

Proclaims Fight on Privilege. 

In outlining his political platform, Señor Valenzuela asserts that his campaign is a crusade of truth, decency and civilization.

 "Against us,” the candidate continued, “selfish, material interests are arrayed. Certain men under the protection of the last government are enjoying special privileges and making great fortunes out of them. They are making a business of everything from public employments to ministerial concessions and even monopolies in milk and meat for hospitals and orphanages: These men have not hesitated to make a business of contraband, even though they were thereby killing national trade and industry. These men did not hesitate to set in motion streams of gold flowing from the gaming houses of Mexicali and Tijuana to the pockets of high officials. These men have not scrupled to invent a religious problem in order to carry on an inhuman persecution, outrageous to popular beliefs and to national pacification. 

"Against these men our forces are grouped under the banner of legality, justice, morality and decency, which are desired by the public conscience. Thus, the coming campaign will be a fight between truth and lies, between sincerity and mystification, between virtue and vice, between justice and crime, between civilization and barbarism. The game is for welfare, prosperity, decorum independence and life itself of the republic." 

Congress Considers Speech. 

It is understood that a permanent committee of Congress discussed Señor Valenzuela's declarations this afternoon and that the National Revolutionary party organized as a party by Señor Calles] soon will publish a reply. One assertion made here is that some members of the Congressional committee consider Señor Valenzuela's declarations as a challenge to the Revolution. Surprise is evidenced in all circles that Señor Valenzuela, who held such high offices under former President Calles, should attack so virulently Mexico's last President. The Obregonistas denounce his assertion that he is carrying the dead General's banner, adding that such an insincere statement destroys the effect of his charges. 

This afternoon's newspapers publish a story that agents of Señor Valenzuela attempted to obtain the support of General Rodriguez, Governor of the State of Baja California, and on that being refused turned against him suddenly, telling of alleged improprieties in his administration. Members of the Congressional committee visited President Portes Gil this evening to express their complete approval of present government plans and administrative action. They asked the President to dispense with the service of all employes of the government whose support of it is considered lukewarm and that an iron hand be used with opponents of the government. 

Valenzuela Accused of Revolt Plot. 

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 13–1929. Charges were made in a meeting of the Mixed Congressional Committee today that Señor Valenzuela was preparing a revolution against the Government. Three foreigners, a Swede, an Italian and a Bolivian, have been ordered deported for expression of pro-Catholic sentiments in connection with recent disorders here. Under the new policy inaugurated yesterday by President Portes Gil, their property is subject to confiscation. The Bolivian is an honorary consul, Alberto Cuatoparo of Ciudad Lerdo, State of Durango. The Swede, Edward Thungben of Mexico City, is charged with staging a public manifestation Sunday at the funeral of José de Leon Toral, the executed assassin of President-elect Alvaro Obregon. The Italian, Andaguiles Giacomo, is accused of publishing a book called "Martyrs of Catholicism." 

Forty-nine women and nineteen men arrested Sunday at the funeral of Toral have been turned over by Police to the Governor of the Federal District, Dr. Puig Casauranc. A detective left at the scene of the dynamiting of the Presidential train Sunday morning has concluded his investigations and has three persons under arrest. Their names were not made known, but one of them is reported to have confessed. Of 250 Catholic priests known to reside in Mexico 236 have complied with government orders of Sunday to communicate their addresses to it, it became known today. 

A dispatch to the Prensa from Guadalajara says that rebels have sacked and burned the railroad station of Palo Verde in the State of Jalisco. There were no casualties, says the dispatch. The farming population of the rebel-infested State of Jalisco is rapidly being evacuated by government order. Only a few of the larger farms remain inhabited through special permission, the condition being that the owners organize defense forces and fortify their premises. Blockhouses are being constructed at strategic points and the farmers from surrounding areas are assembling there with their cattle and provisions.