Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-03-24
May Be Step in Campaign for
Reelection of Taft.
MEXICO is IN SERIOUS WAY
Situation Offers Plausible Excuse for
ervention-Passing Of Old Blood
and Coming of New in Senate
Williams May Dispute Lead
ership With Bailey.
BY WILLIS j. ABBOT.

| dispatch of troops and battleshipS to
! NmaneuVer" 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,
] lngton is asking now.
! 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 81
/ 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 was 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 an imaginary
line which the riotous raiders cross
| at will.
American investments in Mexicp
| are colossal. They will reach almost
$1,000, 100000 nor are they confined 20
| the great railroad, mine or ranch it,
vestors. There are probably 100000
email investors WI IA
! in Mexican projects-some of than
much to their disaster. No man with
any general acquaintance will fall to
| recall half dozen of his friefds
thus interested
Excuse for Interference.
Obviously then the situation afnrds
plausible excuse for intervention. The
heavy hand Of Uncle Sam can iuesifa-
| bly, be laid upon the irreconcilabla in
surrectos and upon the aged and now
seemingly Gecrepit Diaz. Besides,
there is the Monroe Doctrine If we
expect foreign governments to respect
| 1t, we must guarantee order ia the
turbulent countries to which 1t ap-
| plies. European interests in Mexico
are almost equal to those OF the Unit
| ed States. But we would not permit
the landing Of squad of English or
! German marines for their protection.
So that is the argument-the one
on the surface at least But there
! is another.
American history shows that war
president is always re-elected-a war
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 war with Mexico
would be but a brief and spluttering
take a hand in it. 1t is tt. be remem-
| bered that Mexico has more good har-
| bOrs on the Pacific coast than has the
whole state of California, snd in that
! struggle for the mastery of the Pacific.
! OF which we read SO much and appre-
| bend so little, fOothold there would
be priceless to 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. ...-.
| 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
one 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 neighboring nation and 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.
1t has been common gossip about
and was in fact noted in these articles
| some weeks ago, that President Taft
must have 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