Bisbee daily review., 1912-12-01

1 his friends, scquaintances and rela,
 lives. A harmless. impractical though i active and courageous enthusiast, was me general estimate. A few weeks | before the election. however. it he came evident that the public was be- 1 ing influenced. not SO much by his arguments. which everyone knew. ibut by the hope for better thin gs. I aroused by the fact Of one man oDsn- | ly opposing the government. and yet i continuing to live Then began a systematic persecution by govern. ment agents. interference with his speech making, arrests of his friends on the fllmsiest pretexts. and finally | his own incarceration by deliberate | conspiracy In prison he was kept until after the election" and inaugur- ation Of Porifrio Diaz for his sixth ! term. Now he had told Diaz in per | son months before. that unless far election were held a revolution would certainly result. and no sooner had | he been released from prison than he went actively about organizing II. { On Nov. 20. 1910, the first shot was | fired. that having been the pre-arrang- ! ed date, and this shot, which. like a certain other one. was heard around ! the world, was fired at Gomez Palacio. not a half mile from our home. That night a force of 90 men attacked the i local police station and armory. kill ! ing the guards and appropriating their arms, and towards morning of the Fist. they were driven to the hills l in a running fight with % federal troops of the famous old Rurale corps. It was 6 in the morning that the cap tain commanding this little force came to my office to telephone to q neighboring town for endorsements and an hour later he was shot in the fight Our servants came from the market place in great alarm at having pass numbers of dead men and horses in the streets. Federal rein forcements soon came and the little I band of intrepid rebels did not ven ture to return for several months. during which time the fighting was confined largely to the states north Of us and bordering the American frontier Life in our locality went on undisturbed, except for vigorous reprisals by the government on every one who was even suspected of com
 plicity with the rebellion. Scores
 were executed practically without
 trial. Troops were hurried to threat
 ened points, but little could be done
 in this way on account of the demor-
 alization of the army by 30 years or
 peace and graft. On paper there were
 over 10000 soldiers, whose wages
 were regularly paid to some one, but
 by actual count there were less than
 half that number. Still the people
 had been so thoroughly and system
 aticaliy cowed by the Diaz regime,
 that absurdLy small isarrIsons sut-
 feed to keep the men from acting on
 their convictions in favor of revolt.
 Only after several months did the
 country awake to the fact Of the gov
 ernment's weakness. and when the
 giant realized that he could not stir
 without suicidal result, he made
 short work of political intrenchments.
 Diaz resigned before he had been any
 where near conquered from the mil itary standpoint, having recognized
 that public opinion was not only
 against him, but had freed itself, and
 his retirement without further re-
 sistance is now universally com
 mended.
 Since his inauguration in Decem-
 ber. 1911, Madero has had tremen-
 dous and complex task on his hands,
 in the performance Of which he has
 met with the bitterest personal op- position and much ill-advised and uL-
 sympathetic criticism. The toFmes
 he meets from the survivors or the old regime intent on regaining lost prestige and in many cases apparent ly actuated by mere spite and Jeai- ousy, and also from those or his CO reyoIutionists who were not satisfied
 with their share Of the spoils-and that seems at times to include most of them. Criticism against him has proceeded. it seems to me. largely
 CContinued on Page 2)