The Penn's Grove record., 1911-03-24
IS WAR MANEUvER
POLITICAL MOVE?
May Be Step in Campaign for
Reelection of Taft.
MEXICO is IN SERIOUS WAY
Situation Offers Plausible Excuse for
MISUNDERSTANDING of Old Blood
and Coming of New In Senate
Williams May Dispute Lead
ership With Bailey.
By WILLIS j. ABBOT.


Washington, -. Is this sudden
dispatch of troops and battleships to
"maneuver" along the Mexican frontier
the most recent, and most Napoloenic
stroke in the campaign for the re-elec-
ton of President Taft?
That is the question that all Wash.
ington is asking nov
Under the seal of confidence, every
body knows that the internal state of
Mexico is vastly more serious than
the public news would indicate. The
state department knows it, but is ST.
lent save to members of the COM
mittee on foreign relations whose lips
in turn are sealed. The Mexican CEN
sorship of the press is about as COM
plete as vas that Of the Japanese, and
the war correspondents who are shut
up In the sections now In revolution
can do little but send %platitudes and
gnash their teeth.
But through personal letters from
United States army officers stationed
on this side of the Rio Grande, Wash
ingtonians long since learned that the
situation is critical in the extreme.
American interests are hardly regard
ed and the frontier is IN imaginary
line which the riotous raiders ros
at will.
American investments in Mexico
are colossal. They will reach almost
1000, 000, 900 nor are they confined to
the great railroad, mine or ranch in
vestors. There are probably 100000
small investors who have taken flyers
in Mexican projects-some Of them
much to their disaster. No man with
any general acquaintance will fail to
recall a half a dozen of his friends
thus interested.
Excuse for Interference.
Obviously then the situation affords
plausible excuse for Intervention. The
heavy hand of Uncle Sam can justif1a-
bly, be laid upon the irreconcilable in
%surrectos and upon the aged and now
seemingly decrepit Diaz. Besides,
there is the Monroe Doctrine. If we
expect foreign governments to respect
it, we must guarantee order in the
turbulent countries to which it ap-
plies. European interests in Mexico
are almost equal to those of the Unit
ed States. But we would not permit
the landing of a squad of English or
German marines for their protection.
So that is the argument-the n
on the surface at least. But there
is another.
American history shows that a war
president is always re-elected-a wal
party given a prolonged lease of pow
er. And we approach a presidential
campaign in which the Republican
party is seriously menaced for the
first time since 1896.
Of course a war with Mexico
would be but a brief and %spluttering
affair unless some other nation should
take a hand in it. 1t is to be remem-
bered that Mexico has more good har-
bors on the Pacific coast than has the
whole state Of California, and in that
struggle for the mastery of the Pacific,
of which we read so much and appre-
bend SC little, a foothold there would
be priceless to a foreign nation. The
war which such an assault on this
continent would cause might stagger
humanity but it would ~re-elect the
president and the party involved in
It.
A single battleship sent to Havana
rrecipitated the Spanish war, and it is
not even yet determined whether she
was sunk by accident or designer If
by the latter whether the crime was
n Of Spanish malice or Cuban de-
sign for forcing the war.
Twenty thousand men under arms
within striking distance of the Mex
lean frontier; 1000 marines prepared
to be landed at Mexican ports; four
battleships, several cruisers and a
number of torpedo craft making their
way down the Pacific coast to the
most southerly of the United States
harbors, present a more serious men
ace to a neighboring nation and a more
tempting target to turbulent revolu-
tionists than did the Inflated Maine.
And the chance of a war, brief
though it probably would be, cannot
fail to be tempting to a party re-
pudiated in the last congressional
election. but still intrenched in the
executive and the senate, and sorely
loath to give up the pleasures of
power it has enjoyed since 1896.
Cranes Velvet Glove Seen.
IL has been common gossip about
and was in fact noted in these articles
some weeks ago, that President Taft
must have a new political guide, phil
osopher and friend. His engaging per-
sonality is his one chief political asset.
Always it has been necessary for him
to be In the hands of his friends-in
the hands of Theodore Roosevelt dur
Ing the last presidential campaign,
and In the hands of Frank Hitchcock
after his success The net result of
the Hitchcock management was to
bring the Taft administration close to
shipwreck. The people and the lead
ers of his own party hailed the Taft
election with loud acclaim. Conser.
vatives greeted him as a happy re.
lief from the Too Strenuous One:
Money From Waste