New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-04-19

masquerading as Labor Leaders. The
agitation was revived when the De-
ported Nine arrived in England, but
this incident was so clumsily dealt wit,
by themselves and their English friends
that anxiety turned TO ridicule. and no.
body now gives the expelled Anarchists
thought. Or nobody but the Trades
/ Union leaders, who are repenting at
leisure their unwisdom in identifying
Trades Omonism with Syndicalism and
Anarchy.
/ Not to leave America out of view.
may say there have been moments
when English interest in Mexico and
Panama has been. though never uni
Nersal' general The murder Of Mr..
Benton by the bandit who calls himself
General Villa touched Englishmen in a
sensitive spot. They are not used to
seeing one of their countrymen treach-
erously done TO death and no effort
made to avenge him or to exact repara-
ton OF some kind from the assassins.
Ihey acquiesced, though not willingly,
in Sir Edward Grey's proposal to leave
the matter in the hands of the Ameri-
can Government. When It became only
too evident that the President and Mr..
Bryan had allowed themselves to be
fooled by Carranza and Villa, the Eng
hsh still believed in the good faith of
the American Government and fell
back on Sir Edward Grey's promise
that q !,
the Mexican murderers at some future
day.
They did not publicly-that is, neither
In the Press nor Parlament-pont out
that the killing of Mr.. Benton was done
by Mexican Rebels with whom the
President Of the United States was
virtually in alliance. They did not sug-
gest, as they might well have sug
gested, that the very weapons Villa
and his fellow brigands used against
Mr.. Benton might have come from the
United States by the removal of the
embargo and the permission of the
President They did not find much
comfort in the fact, as cabled from
Washington, that 63 Americans had
been murdered in Mexico, and that
President Wilson appeared to have
taken no step to avenge them or to
protect the survivors, still at the mercy
CT Villa and Carranza. The man in the
street or on the farm does not argue
things out in this way. But he has Il
dumb general impression which sinks
deep and may yet express itself.
1t may be worth while to correct the
assertion so often made in America
that the English Government approved
of Mr.. Wilson's Mexican policy. They
did not approve; they acquesced. No
European Government has approved
Mr. Asquith. speaking in all friendli-
ness and with every desire to be agree
able to US, acquiesced, but did not ap-
prove. Sir Edward Grey acquiesced
and there stopped. The British Press
acquiesced and no more. have never
yet met an Englishman who approved.
The Engli-h do not oppose. They think
II primarily our business and not theirs
Englishmen have suffered enormous
losses because Of Mr.. Wilson's mistake
in refusing to recognize President
Huerta and Of his obstinate persistence
in his mistake. They bear them, pa
tiently or impatiently, but they bear
them. You can hardly ask them TO
applaud the author Of their msfortunes.
President Wilson has succeeded in
uniting the opinion Of all Europe
against him, but no European Power
dreams Of interfering. They look
on with amazement at the rebuffs Mr.
Bryan invites and endures from Huerta
and Carranza alike, and perhaps they
wonder bow long the American people
will tolerate his schoolboy tricks and
more than schoolboy ignorance; but it
is no business Of theirs. The cable
tells us that the Head of our State De-
partment is going TO protest against
the return Of the British Minister, Sir
Lionel Garden, to Mexico. But there
must be some American schoolboy to
tell him what sort Of a rebuke ne
would encounter if he did, and there
] must DC lOlllto VI "A'N' 'N' $500
Bryan is incapable.
A misconception about Panama seems
TO prevail also in some parts OF
America, especially in the Hearst pa
pers, and perhaps in the remoter
regions Of the Republic. 1t is sup
posed that England takes financial
or commercial view Of the clause in
the Panama Act exempting the Ameri-
can coastwise trade from canal tolls.
She would suffer, though indirectly,
money loss, but that is not the main
ground of her, or our, objection TO the
clause. You seldom or never hear
complaint on that ground. The objec-
ton is to our violation Of the treaty
under which we acquired the right to
/ build the canal. BY the Clayton
Bulwer treaty we had bound ourselves
not TO make or fortify canal. BY the
| Hay Pauncefote treaty England re-
/ leased us from that obligation on con-
dition that all nations should fare alike
| in their use Of he canal
/ That is elementary, 90 elementary
/ that the Americans who think ship
ping interests more precious than ma
/ ,to,,.t bopor leave IL ont of view. But