Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-23
AIMS TO clay CARDS ON
THE TABLE" FOR WILSON
Sees No Necessity Yet for Message
to Congress on Mexico.
WILSON TO STUDY SITUATION
President-Elect Will Confer With
Members of Present Cabinet to
Familiarize Himself With
Conditions.

NJ w VIM. L Noi Aoi
Before President TAFT leaves Of
flee: March a, he will have con-
centrated at Galveston, Tex,
close TO 10000 United States
troops ready to board transports
there and depart for Mexico on
few hours notice.
The President. here tonight 10
attend a banquet OF the American
Peace and Arbitration League, is
just as much opposed to interven-
ton as he has been for two years.
He is determined, however, that
he will LAY the cards on the
table" SO that when Mr.. Wilson
becomes President, if a crisis
arises, all he will have to do is
to play them.
More Regulars to Go.
Through Secretary Hilles the President
announced tonight that the dispatch of a
brigade of troops to Galveston today was
part Of the original precautionary plans
and that 1t would be followed by another
order which would send between 5000
and 1000 more regulars to the boundary.
Galveston Is within three days of Vera
Cruz. the seaport of Mexico City. Four
transports will be ready there to take the
troops south if the contingency arises.
and with battleships on the Atlantic and
Pacific near Mexican ports the President
feels that Mr.. Wilson will have no cause
to complain of unpreparedness If the un-
expected happens.
night about conditions in Mexico. He
ioid friends he saw no particular reason
for further tappreh ension, but seemed to
think the continued trouble in Mexico
6 was indicative Of what was to be feared
later.
Statement Made by Taft.
His statement. through Secretary
Hiiles. was written in the home of his
brother. Henry w. Taft. after he had
seen the dispatches from Washington
about the concentration in Galveston of
one brigade of regulars. The statement
follows:
The movement Of troops is merely to
bflnS u DrISdOe 10 1dlNcSlcH, tO WHICH
place four transports had already been
ordered as a mere precautionary measure
because OF unsettled conditions in Mex
leo. II is not prompted by any recent
news from Mexico. and is only part Of
the reasonable precautions directed to
be taken some time ago, in which the
sending of battleships TO the various
ports in Mexico was the first step.
THE sending of four transports and
two brigades to Galveston is the next
and final step.
The Presiden; explained that the next
brigade to go TO Galveston might be
taken from the east or from the far
west.
Troops to Total Nearly 10000.
There are about $50 troops now in
Texas, and the brigade ordered there to-
day will bring the number above 5000, so
that the Presidents final order would
swell the total to close to 10000. Be-
yond that figure he has no present in
tention of gong. His friends think it
is for Congress TO decide whether ad-
ditional precautions should be taken and
more troops or more battleships sSN
nearer to Mexico.
The President Is not ready yet to send
formal message to Congress displaying
all the mass of information on Mexico
that has accumulated In the State De-
partment for the last two years. He has
not seen the necessity for such a mes
sage and believes Congress is sufficiently
advised to decide upon it's own course of
procedure.