Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-02-27
COL. GRAVES POINTS OUT
PERIL Of COWARD|CE IN
HANDLING MEXICAN CRISIS
Temporizing by Taft and His Admins
tration Foreshadows Attempt to
Abandon Monroe DOCtrine---Leaders
Admit Desire to Evade Responsibility.
By JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES

convince these people that any govern
ment erected by MeXicans can be made
strong enough to resist revolution and
to put down disorder
Split by lncurabIe Factions
There is not a faction in MoA.. O that
believes the Huerta administration can
live any longer than they wish it to
live
And they are right for it would take
Huerta at least decade Of hangings,
executions and assassinations to intim-
idate the lawless elements of Mexico
into the belief in his power to maintain
order and TO protect the public inter-
est
AS with Huerta- so with any man
that takes his place Mexico is liter
| ally split to pieces by incurable fac
tons and irreconcilable guerrillas, who
can never be brought to contentment
or acceptance until the people own the
land Of Mexico.
1t is the consciousness of this fact,
forced upon hating senators and timid
representatives, and the irresolute .ad-
ministration, which clears their vision
to the inevitable certainty Of interven-
ton and, ultimately, of annexation.
To tell the truth about it. the great
majority, both of senator's and repre-
sentatives, have not a trace OF the war
| spirit in them. The South, quick in old
en- times to resent a national reflection
and fairly pulsing with the national
spirit. has grown so stepped in mate
rialism and industrial growth that it is
almost impossible to awaken national
sentiment
Let me apologize to the Southern
people. 1t is not they, but their repre-
sentatives who have fallen victims of
the disease of material development
1t is quite as much so with the peo-
pie OF the West and OF the East.
ANY dispersion upon our country's
power or its honor would be resented
everywhere by the people and any ap-
peal to that sentiment meets an instant
and overwhelming response from the
people. But there are representatives
In both houses who appear to be posi-
lively callous to the stir of the national
spirit to the sentiment of national hon
or or TO the infringement Of a great
national doctrine.
Visitors Responsible, If Killed.
A senator very close to the next ad-
ministration said today that It would
take the last possible necessity to in
duce him to consent to Intervention in
Mexico
it the American ambassador" said
me- should be killed in Mexico should
nave to be thoroughly convinced that il
was not done by the party in power
with direct personal hostility to tn.
United States, before would be wiIIino
to vote for Intervention.
| u believe that the Mexican p.ople
should be left to settle their own prob.
lens and to work out their own Govern.
mental salvation.
II they have to slaughter and de-
stroy and shock civilization with their
| murders and assa ssinations. that is
! their concern. not ours
| III any of our people or anv foreion
people are killed and their property de-
stroyed it is responsibility which they
took when they went to Mexico and in
vested IN Mexico, and they ought to ac-
cept the responsibility of their own lack
OF Judgment and discretion in qoina
there"
Little American" Spirit
rms senator of the United States.
great In power and prestige, eloquent
and learned. was thus shamelessly will
ing to destroy the whole theory of
nations protection to its citizens dear
10 every honorable government on
earth, and was as serene about ii as if
he were discussing a cold business
| proposition in which one country had
made a contract with another and
| ought to keep IT,
This is the bIoodless spirit Of the
little Americans which is giving rise
10 this coWardly and reasonable talk
of the abandonment or amendment of
| the Monroe Doctrine
1t is natural growth of the great
mammOn worship which is abroad in
the land. The mention of this seua-
tors name would give extraordinary
menace and force TO the discussion in
which he takes a part
Lodge Denounces the Treason.
BE it said to his credit that Henry
| Cabot Lodge, Of Massachusetts, whom
We have had occasion to criticise in
| this paper, was one American senator
who openly and sternly denounced the
discussion Of such a proposition as
! reasonable and absurd.
! Another great Democratic senator
! from the South declared that such a
proposition amounts to the abandon
ment of American pre- en- inence on the
| continent That it is a confession of
national weakness and of national
cowardce which would ruin the coun-
try"
The senator who said this went
further and told me that he had long
been in favor of our owning Lower
California, and that within the last