Atlanta Georgian., 1913-02-27
COL, GRAVES POINTS OUT
PERIL Of COWARD|CE IN
HANDLING MEXICAN CRISIS
Temporizing by Taft and His Adminis-
tration Foreshadows Attempt to
Abandon Monroe DOCtrine---Leaders
Admit Desireto Evade Responsibility.
Bv 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 faction in Mexico 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 a 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
tions 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 halting senators and timid
representatives, and the irresolute ad
ministration. which clears their vision
to the inevitable certainty Of nterVen
ton and, ultimately, of annexation.
| To tell the truth about It, the great
majority both of senators and repre-
| sentatives, have not a trace of the war
spirit in them The South. quick in old
I en- times to resent a national reflection
and fairly pusing 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 asperslon 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 1t would
take the last possible necessity to in
| duce him to consent to Intervention in
! Mexico
'If the American ambassador" said
he. Should be killed in Mexico | should
have to be thoroughly convinced that IL
| Fdnk l..
with direct personal hostility to the
United States, before would be wilino
to vote for Intervention.
u believe that the Mexican MANILA
should be left to settle their own prob
lens and to work out their own Govern
mental salvation.
| If they have to slaughter and de-
stroy and shock civilization with their
murders and assassinations, that is
their concern. not ours.
"If any of our people or anv foreion
people are killed and their property de.
stroyed, it is responsibility which thew
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 ooino
there"
Little American" Spirit.
This senator Of the United States
great in power and prestige. eloquent
and learned, was thus shamelessly will
ing to destroy the whole theory of q
nations protection to its citizens. dear
to every honorable government on
earth, and was rs serene about it 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 bloodless spirit Of the
little Americans" which is giving rise
to this cowardly and treasonable 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 sena-
tors name would give extraordinary
menace and force to the discussion in
which me 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
bLle paper, was pIA6 AlllSllCtu SclttloI
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
proposition amounts to the abandon
ment of American pre- eminence on the
continent. That it is a confession of
national weakness and of national
cowardioe 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
. few days he had come to the conclu-
sion that we must inevitably take pos
) ! session of Mexico TO restore ordar 70