Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1912-04-05
De IA BARA
NOW IN MEXICO
Arrival After Long Absence
Gives Rise 10 Speculations
AS to Future
zAPATA AND OR0ZCO FIRM
Pledges That They VIII Protect
the Property Interests of
Foreigners

CBy Special Leased Wire to New Mextcanl
Mexico City, April 5.-No other
event holds as much of speculative
interest in the Mexican political situ-
alton as the arrival here of Francisco
Leon de la Barra after an absence OF
/ four and One-haIf months. All sorts
of predictions as to his future part in
national affairs are being made, ac-
cOrdng to the light in which the maxi
er views the local situation but in
the main there are expectations that
Senor de la Barras influence will be
of benefit.
Even the members of the Progress
sive Nationalist party, the men who
sent the cabled dispatch to the absent
eX-President advising him for the
country's good not to return to Mexi-
co, do not contend that he comes with
the purpose OF fomenting new difficult
ties for the administration. Their
fear is that his name will be a rally
ing cry for the powerful discontents.
among them the church party The
influence of this party in Mexico is
difficult to determine. Political party
life in Mexico is, as a matter of fact,
generally impossible to predict for
any period of time, for the plain rea-
son that there have never previously
existed free political organizations.
While popular support for one al
Ilegiance or another, however. is as yet
Ia matter of the personal popularity
OF the leaders, Senor de la Barra has
been differentiated from the others
by his ability to command a continu-
ous attitude of respect on the part
.of Mexico at large. Whether from a
sense Of fairness toward Francisco
Madero when the latter was making
the political campaign that preceded
his formal election to the presidency,
or from an astute sense thai the fu-
ture held possibilities of more lasting
pre-eminence in his country, Senior
de la Barra declined the nomination
as an opposition candidate which the
Catholic party tried to force upon him.
When, two days previous to his de-
parture from Paris on his return to
Mexico. the members of the Progress
sive Constitutional party, all known
as intimates of the Madero admins
tratiOn, sent the message warning
against his return, the publication of
that communication aroused a protest
which was in no sense confined to
the Catholic party. The students of
the National Unversity's allied
schools, an erratic but influential
political element We're among the
loudest in their dcnunciations of the
action. Praise for the past record of
the returning eX-president rang only
less loudly than denunciatOns of the
sentiments which inspired the warn
ing cablegram. President Madero,
quick to sense the current of popular
/ feeling, FASTENED to characterize the
act of his party associates as ill-judg-
ed and to add his contribution to the
| praises of the man who had helped
make him president.
Having been on official representa-
! tive of the Diaz regime, however, the
men who are most blindly attached to
the results of the Madero revolution
hold that Senor de la Barra can never
represent any other element in Mex-
can politics. Months of revolutionary
turmoil since the accession of Fran
cisco Madero have produced in many
quarters a revulsion of feeling which
is elevating the memory of President
Diaz into unmistakable favor. Such
feeling is likely to rebound to Senior
! de la Barra's benefit and it seems like
ly tha- in the course of ordinary
events he may be looked to as one
of the future favorites of popular con-
! fidence