Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-08
MACON DENIES
WRITING LETTER
IMPRISONED MEXICAN SAYS
CHARGE is FALSE
FRIENDS ASSERT HE DID NOT
CALL AMERICANS "PIGs"
Dispatch from City of Mexico Car
ries MissiVe Declared to Have
Been Written by Well
Known Liberal

American and Mexican friends of
Ricardo Flores Magon, the brilliant
Mexican reformer and author who has
been held for many months in the Los
Angeles jail on different charges, but
lastly on the charge of violating TIE
neutrality laws, in that he is accused
by President Diaz and his regime,
which he frequently has criticised, of
being a so-called "reVoluttonist, all
strenuously and indignantly deny that
MACON ever wrote any such letter
as that attributed to him by the Mex
ican Herald, quoted in the Associated
Press dispatches from the City OF
Mexico.
'.,Fhe line in which Mr.. Magon is
quoted as calling the Americans
pigs" declared one of his strongest
champions yesterday, lis clearly an
Interpolation, manufactured by the
Mexican authorities to discredlt Ma
eon in the eyes of the Americans and
duench whatever sympathy the Amer
leans may have for the man who so
unjustly and cruelty has been impris-
oned in an American jail by American
federal officers at the instigation or
Diaz."
Many others were equally ardent in
their defense of Magon. The letter
said to have been written by Mr. Ma
gon and intercepted by Mexican post
office authorities is declared by his
supporters to be a clever coup sprung
at a critical moment, when Magon is
in need of American aid and SYM
pathy.
1t is done, they declare, to hasten
his surrender by the American to the
Mexican authorities, under the alleged
pretext that he is reVolutionist, and
to give the Americans the belief he is
really guilty Of the charges brought
against him.
Newspaper Accuses Him
According to the Mexican Herald"
said one of Mr.. Wagons attorneys
yesterday, this letter was the foun-
dation of the Mexican charge of vio-
lating the neutrality laws; yet no just
or rightly thinking person, whether
they be American or Mexican, can
find any semblance of such a crime in
this letter, even with all of its SEEM
ing interpretations, and despite the fact
1t is given to us by an enemy as proof
of the mans so-called revolutionary
character.
Granting that the letter contains
even an unfounded criticism, which l
fail to see, is it crime in such
republic as Mexico claims to be for
one of her citizens, sprung Of an old
and honored family, to crtticiSe the
president?
rs it an offense to danounce a form
of government which Mr.. Magun may
believe can be remedied and reformed?
If SO, surely it is not an offense for
which the American citizens will per-
nit him to be eXtradited and turned
over to a set of men who will speedily
and summarily intiict-0od only knows
what kind of secret punishment
1.-The horrors of prison life and prison
punishments in Mexico have been so
frequently described by various writ
ers and the method which the Mex
lean authorities seem to have of i'm
prisoning and of putting to death,
without trial, the score or more Of
editors and speakers who have dared
to criticise Diaz, have been so fre-
quently betrayed and denounced by
those on this side of the line, who
have felt themselves safe under our
American protection, that il is hardly
necessary now to dwell further on this
feature; but these things surely should
appeal to the American sense of JUS
tice and fair play"
The letter which has aroused the
indignation of Wagons compatriots
here who declare they are not in SYM
pathy with the Diaz form of gov
ernment, is alleged by the Mexican
Herald, according to Associated Press
him to his brother, Enrique Magon,
at Ell Paso, and also is alleged to have
been written In cipher code"
These "ciphers," it is alleged. have
been translated by the Mexican au-
thorities, though how they solved the
secret of the alleged code is not told.
In this letter, it is also claimed, Ma
gon endeavored to incite a revolution
among thousands of factory hands,
working for a law-limited pittance in
the mills at Orizaba.
Have Been Long In Jail
"Magon, Villareal and Rivera have
been for eleven months in jail, with
out tangible evidence of guilt, and at
first under different charges" said an