The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-22
MEXICO RELEASES YOUNG AMERICANS c. H. Converse Has Neigh borly Chat With Diaz TALK LIKE OLD CHUMS Diaz Promises to Release Both Blatt and Converse From Prison, After
 Father Says He will Take
 Care of Them
TALK LIKE OLD CHUMS

| Mexico City. April 1.-Two old men. one
 the President of Mexico and the other
 an attorney of Los Angeles, and the
 father of a boy confined in a Mexican | prison, today chatted in a nelghbor!y fashion for 15 minutes over subject that has brought into action all the ma chinery of two state departments At
 the conclusion the father was promise1 | that his son would be set free. | The attorney was c. H. Converse, | father of Lawrence Converse, who has
 on charge of having participated in the | Mexican revolution as a filibusterer The father came to Mexico not in his capac- | ity as an attorney to argue the case | of his son, but simply as a father. When | he left the office of the president 1t was | with the assurance that not only would | his son be released, but that Edwat1
 M. Blatt, the other young man who has
 been held on the same charge, would be l intrusted to his care. The two boys will | be taken by Converse to Los Angeles. General Diaz has promised Converse
 that he will send to him tomorrow a let
 ter addressed to the authorities at Jua-
 reg instructing them to release the two
 boys to Converse.
 Converse arrived here last night and today, accompanied by an attache of the
 American embassy, who acted simply as
 an interpreter, called on the president. | He was introduced as the father of young Converse.
 | Relating to the story of the conference Converse characterized 1t as being like
 that of two old neighbors. Not once,'
 said he, did the president ask an en- | barra ssing question or make remark | calculated to hurt my feelings. It was l simply the case of two old men talking
 over the action of son who had gotten into trouble. l was not asked to give l any reasons why my boy should De re- l leased and I did not" Diaz Asks Questions President Diaz asked MT. Converse how old his boy was.
 He is just 21,' replied the father. "Is he a good boy? What does he do:' came the double question from the pres | ident.
 Converse assured the old general | that his son was as good as most boys or better and that he was trying to
 make a lawyer out of him. that he was now a ,stenographer and had been doing very well.
 There was a brief pause broken by the President who said:
 Has the boy mother?' Yes"
 would you be willing to take the hoy back home with you and look after him and see that he remains away | from Mexico?"
 The father assured him that he would be glad to do so.
 Then" said the President. "I will have him released. You had better .ake him immediately to his mother,
 for she, 1 presume. will be worried" | The father of the young flibuster expressed his gratitude, but the neigh boriy chat" was not yet concluded | But, Mir President he said. there
 is another boy in jail at Juarez who is
 as guilty as my son, if he is gull | ty that's young Blatt. l came here | to secure the release of my boy, if l possible, but I would not feel right | to go back home and leave him there l in Jail"
 The President asked Converse a few questions about Blatt and was told that he too, was little more than boy that the condition of his health was not good, that he had come south in
 the hope that it might be improved, | and that he was a friend of the Con- verse boy.
 The President spent little time in
 considering the new proposition. He | asked Converse if he would be willing 1 10 assume responsibility for him also, and was told that Blatt would be taken to Los Angeles with the other boy and | they would "try to make something
 out of him. The President then added ! he would make the letter such as | would secure the release of both.