The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-23
TAFT IS CON-
over COM
AFT AIRS / I.....I-. u.
Collecting Troops ON Texas
FrOntier-Make 1t Easy
for President Elect
Wilson

New York. February .22-Before Pres
ident Taft leaves office on March 4
he will have concentrated at Galveston,
Tex, close to 10000 United States troops
ready to board transports there and de-
part for Mexico on few hours notice.
The President. here tonight to at
ltend a banquet of the American Peace
and Arbitration league, is just as much
opposed to Intervention as he has been
for two years. He is determined, how
ever, that he will LAY the cards on the
table," SO that when Mr.. Wilson be-
comes President. If crisis arises, all
he will have 20 do Is to play them.
! Through Secretary Hilles the Presi-
dent announced tonight that the dis
patch of a brigade of troops to Gal
weston today was part of the original
precautionary plan and that it would
be followed by another order which
would send between 5000 and 1000 more
regulars to the boundary. Galveston is
within three days of Nera Cruz the
seaport of Mexico City. -Four trans
ports viii be ready there to take troops
lsouth If the contingency arises and with
lbattleships 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.
Concerned With Conditions
The President was plainly concerned
tonight about conditions in Mexico. He
told friends he saw no particular rea-
son for further apprehension but
seemed to think the continued trouble
lin Mexico was indication of what WAS
to be feared later.
His statement through Secretary Hill
les 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 state-
ment follows:
i. The movement of troops is merely to
| bring brigade to Galveston, to which
place four transports had already been
oroered as a mere precautionary meas
ure because of unsettled conditions in
Mexico. 1t is not prompted by any re-
cent news from Mexico and is only part
| of the reasonable precautions directed
ito 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
lwo L X o. to Galveston is the next
and final STEP"
Tue rles..,nt explained that the next
brigade to go to Galveston might be
taken from the east or from the far
west.
| $500 Troops in Texas
| There are ABOUT $500 II pops now IN
Texas and the brigade oidered there
!, today will bring the number above
/: 60O0. so that the Presidents final or
/ der would swell the total to close to
10000. Beyond that figure he has no
present intention OF going His friends
think 1t is for Congress to decide
whether additional precautions should
| be taken and more troops or more bat
tleships sent nearer to Mexico.
/ The President is not ready yet to
send a formal message to Congress
displaying all the mass of informa-
| tion ON Mexico that has accumulated
| in the state department for the last
! two years. He has not seen the neces-
sity for such a message and believes
| Congress is sufficiently advised to de-
fcide upon its own course OF proceed
Mg.