"Must keep calm!"

The President of Mexico sat facing an assassin who had just murdered the President Elect.

Terrible but controlled was the anger of President Plutarco Elias Calles at the death of his dearest friend and closest political associate, President Elect Alvaro Obregon.

President glared at Assassin as might lion at weasel. How to make the pale but unflinching weasel squeak?

Christ the King. The precise words of ensuing dialog will perhaps never be established to the satisfaction of all. Accepted version:

President Calles--What motive had you to deprive General Obregon of his life?

Assassin--By order of Christ the King, that His laws should have due effect in Mexico.

President--What was your real object in killing him?

Assassin--That damnation should not rest upon the people.

President--WTho were your accomplices in this crime?

Assassin--I had none. If there had been others their firing would have created confusion.

President--How did you expect to get out of this tragedy?

Assassin--I believed that I would get out of it dead, but you see I am still alive. That proves that all is the work of the Divine Spirit.

President--Have you parents, wife, children or other relatives?

Assassin--Yes, I have, but that interests only me--and God.

President--What is your name?

Assassin--My name is Juan.

President--Full name?

Juan--That has not the slightest interest for any one. My name is simply Juan and nothing else.

President (rising and turning disgustedly away) Ghrh!! A Roman Catholic, a mystic ! Useless to question the type!

Meanwhile able Mexican sleuths were ferreting out the name of the assassin--Jose de Leon Toral--and rounding up his whole family as suspects.

La Bombilla. No sooner was President Elect Obregon assassinated than Chief of Police Roberto Cruz of Mexico City was relieved of that office on general principles and replaced by the doughty General Antonio Rios Zertuche. "We must keep calm!" he exclaimed repeatedly to reporters, "We must keep calm. >. . ."

Striding into the restaurant La Bombilla, General Zertuche proceeded to reconstruct the crime. By his stern order not so much as a plate or saucer had been moved. There was the table at which Mexico's one-armed hero had sat down to luncheon, beaming and bowing amid plaudits. Next to his blood-stained bullet-riddled chair was that upon which had sat Governor Aaron Saenz of Nuevo Leon, conversing jovially with Obregon.

Down at the far end of La Bombilla was the side door through which Assassin "Juan" had entered, plying the trade of a street caricaturist. The completed drawing which he had made of the President Elect lay on the table. So did the pistol which had spoken five times from concealment under the caricaturist's handful of caricatures.

The evidence, such as it was, received penetrating scrutiny from would-be-calm General Zertuche. The lines of the sketch, he remarked, were firm and sure, showing no trace of perturbation, and the likeness was recognizable. Scowling thoughtfully,

General Zertuche rode back to continue examination of his prisoner. Shortly he issued a communique: "The general inspectorate of police, temporarily in my charge ... is ... in a position to make public that responsibility for the crime belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy."

Proclamation. President Calles declared in an official proclamation: "The criminal has fully confessed that his tragic action was motivated by religious fanaticism. Furthermore, the authorities have gained much information complicating directly clerical action in this crime."

At Rome the banished Mexican Archbishop Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores, who has been advising the Holy Father with respect to the suppression of Roman Catholic activities in Mexico (TIME, June 18) said: "Unhappily, it is but natural that the newly elected President should perish by violence. He caused so many people's deaths that sooner or later the friends of those whose blood he shed would have killed him." The semi-official organ of the Vatican L'Osservatore Romano declared editorially that the assassination was "probably political"; adding several days later, "To the persecution of which Mexican Catholics are the victims the insult is now added of attributing to them a crime they have not committed, just as in the first centuries of the Church, Nero, who wished to put Christians to death, attributed to them the firing of Rome.

"The Holy Catholic Church never forgets the divine precept, 'diligite inimicos vestros' 'Love your enemies.' "

Significant Progress. By far the most significant developments in connection with the crime were those showing that Mexico and Mexicans have now achieved substantial progress toward Law & Order.

The assassin was not lynched.

Censorship of the press was put on for only a few hours.

No important disorders occurred.

The assassin was not subjected to torture or violent Third Degree.

Lastly, Jose de Leon Toral was not shot by the police, last week, although the Mexican authorities have constitutional power to thus deal out summary execution in cases of emergency.

Assassin Displayed. Hardest for citizens of the U.'S. to believe is the fact that Jose de Leon Toral was not tortured in an effort to make him incriminate other Roman Catholics. General Zertuche did what he could to clear up this point, three days after the murder, by exhibiting the assassin to correspondents. They reported that the right black eye which he received during the scuffle attending his arrest was still swollen and that he looked tired but showed no evidence of torture or mutilation. Bloodstains received by the prisoner's wrinkled brown coat when he was pinioned on the floor of La Bombilla had not been removed.

"Can you speak," asked a correspondent, as the prisoner remained obstinately dumb.

Civil Trial. Subsequently it was announced that Jose de Leon Toral would be granted an immediate civil trial--an event almost unprecedented under the circumstances, since only last winter four men were shot by a police firing squad without trial, merely because suspected of having thrown bombs at General Obregon (TIME, Dec. 5).

This amazing reversal of time-honored Mexican methods was attributed by some to hypothetical words of counsel supposed to have reached the ear of President Calles, last week, from the lips of U. S. Ambassador and onetime Morgan Partner Dwight Whitney Morrow. Conceivably General Zertuche was naively reacting to Presidential orders and Ambassadorial advice when he nervously and repeatedly ejaculated to correspondents, "Must keep calm!"

Cynics rejected so ingenious a theory while recalling Mr. Morrow's major success in calming U. S.-Mexican relations, heretofore embittered over Oil, etc. (TIME, April 9).

Crown of Clay. General Alvaro Obregon was twice invincible, in valor and in modesty. History does not record that he ever lost a major battle. So invincible was his modesty that during his term as President (1920-24) he would not occupy the Mexican "White House," a sumptuous palace, but resided nearby in his own small house. Such a man did well to refuse in his last will burial in the Mexican National Cemetery.

Alvaro Obregon, born in the remote hamlet of Huatabampo, Sonora, 850 miles northwest of Mexico City, was solemnly returned thither, last week, to seek honest, humble rest. Over his grave will rise no ornate tombstone but at the head will rest a Crown of Clay, baked hard as porcelain. By this traditional symbol, the Republic of Mexico, which cannot crown a living hero, is accustomed to pay royal homage to the Heroic Dead.

Last Command. The General's heir, Umberto Obregon, 24, has possessed since he was 14 years old a Last Command from his father, who has spent at least a generation in imminent peril of Death. Command:

"My Beloved Son:

"When you receive this I will have marched to the Northern front with my battalion at the call of my country.

I grieve only that your youth does not permit you to go with me. If I die, I admonish you always to be a slave to duty, to your country, to your sister, your two aunts and the stepmother who has served you as a mother. This must be to you a sacred duty, and to it you must consecrate your life.

"Give an embrace to them and to your beloved sister for me and you, my dear son. Receive the heart of

"Your father,

"ALVARO OBREGON."

The aunts referred to were elder sisters of an 18th and youngest child, Alvaro Obregon, who was brought up by them when orphaned. He never forgot.

Warrior of Wit. Too many generals lack wit. Indeed the quality is thought fatal in a military man, or policeman. But General Obregon's buoyant, spontaneous wit bubbled at convivial moments like champagne--to which he was not addicted, being an advocate of temperance, not prohibition.

Testifying to Obregon's wit, last week,

Clown Will Rogers wrote: "I never met a public man in any country with as many laughs tucked away as he. After escaping assassination, while I was there he spent over $1,000 answering congratulatory telegrams on his escape. He said to me: 'I can't afford to be missed again. It's cheaper to be hit.' "

Orphan into General. To trace the life circle which began and ended at Huatabampo would strain an epic pair of compasses.

Orphan. Farmer boy. Colleague of Yaqui Indians. Keeper of a general store. Employe of a U. S. engineering firm. Rural politician. Recruiter of a two-thirds Indian army in the revolution against Dictator Porfirio Diaz who had been seven times President of Mexico--such was the manner in which Orphan Obregon became General.

Carranza & Villa. When the years of revolutionary triumph began to lengthen, Obregon might easily have seized the Presidency. But he stood aside for his friend Venustiano Carranza, bearded, schoolmasterish, vain. When Carranza had had his swig of power and seemed reluctant to pass on the cup, General Obregon ousted him and probably issued the order which resulted in his assassination.

"I made Carranza President," said Obregon to the late Spanish novelist Vincente Blasco Ibafiez, "I took Carranza in triumph from Vera Cruz to the Presidential chair. Afterwards it was my turn. Isn't that fair?"

Before General Obregon proceeded to "take his turn" he broke the power of Bandit Pancho Villa with the decisive victories of Celaya and Guano Juato, which however cost him his right arm, amputated above the elbow after wounds.

President Obregon. The Anti-Roman Catholic and extremely nationalist Mexican Constitution of 1917 was adopted under President Carranza, but first achieved international significance under President Obregon. His policy was dual, and shot through with the inconsistency of genius. On the one hand he whooped Mexican nationalism and trod on the toes of U. S. investors by commencing to enforce the Constitution; and on the other hand he sought to maintain cordial relations with the statesmen of Washington, D. C.

The dual program thus inaugurated by President Obregon was continued with less success by his friend and chosen successor President Plutarco Elias Calles--until Ambassador Morrow loomed pacifically.

How astonishing and paradoxical were the successes of Obregon may be judged from three facts: 1) He won recognition for his Government from President Harding; 2) He "borrowed" $5,000,000 from. Edward L. Doheny; 3) He was saved from being ousted by a revolt led by General Adolfo de La Huerta, when President Calvin Coolidge declared an embargo on arms destined for Huerta, then permitted Obregon and Calles to buy.

Last week General Adolfo de la Huerta, once for a brief time Provisional President of Mexico, now in bitter exile at Los Angeles, Calif., said: "I lament the passing of Obregon, because I would have liked to have had him live long enough to pay for his many sins."

Morones Forced Out. Not to defend Roman Catholicism, but to discredit the Mexican Federation of Labor was the shrewd purpose of Senor Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama, leader of the rival Agrarian Federation, when he presently declared: "There isn't a man, woman or child in all Mexico who accepts the official charges that the Catholic clergy inspired the assassination of President-elect Obregon. Everybody knows Morones did it. Morones must go, or President Calles's administration will forfeit the confidence of the public."

"Morones" meant Labor Federation Luis N. Morones, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Labor. His instant rebuttal was to sign with two labor colleagues a joint resignation. This declared that the Agrarians "have seen fit to indicate our presence in our public posts ... as an obstacle to clearing up the responsibility for . " . the vile assassination. . . .

"We now retire ... to leave you [President Calles] complete liberty of action."

Since Morones has long been the chief political rival of both Obregon and Calles, holding his cabinet post against Obregon's will by sheer potency, his resignation, probably demanded, was accepted with alacrity.