The Washington herald., 1914-03-01
POLITICAL SITUATION.

President Wilson has his ear to the
ground. He is waiting for public senti'
ment to develop to determine his course
of action in the Mexican situation.
The probability is that ere long he
will decide upon intervention. The
statement made in The Washington
Herald last week that there was con-
siderable dissatisfaction throughout the
country with his policy of watchfuI
waiting can be repeated this week with
emphasis. The feeling. has been greatly
increased by the Benton affair. Not
only did the ruthless killing of Benton
reveal a condition, of outlawry in Mex
leo. but there has been considerable
adverse comment concerning the ac-
tivity of the administration in investi-
eating this affair, at Great Britain's be-
hest, while the deaths of nearly eoo
American citizens were allowed to pass
unheeded. Any one who mingles with
Senators and Representatives will find
that, irrespective of political afhliation,
there is feeling that present conditions
cannot long continue. When it is as
serted, as it was upon the floor of the
House of Representatives last Thursday,
that the Monroe doctrine is very much
alive, and the assertion passes current
as a fact, it is evident that the United
States will not allow any European
power to interfere. At the same time
these powers, which thus far have been
remarkably patient, will not long endure
anarchy, with all its accdmpaniments ot
murder and pillage. The United States
stands sponsor. for peace and order, and
when the very opposite conditions exist
there must come a day of reckoning.
1t is no exaggeration to say that
among the leaders of all political parties
in Washington the Mexican situation is
regarded as being of supremest moment.
There is, however, a deep appreciation
of the possible effect of rash talk or
action. Nobody wants war. Every one
realizes that intervention in Mexico will
not mean a short, sharp conflict, like the
war with Spain, but a long, costly
guerrilla warfare, in which, in all proba-
bility, all factions in Mexico will unite
against common enemy. No one can
tell what will issue from Pandora's box
if once the lid is lifted. The United
States would be compelled to institute
provisional government, as it did in
Cuba, and then establish a protectorate
during the long period of return to
law and order The policy of the ma
ton is averse to wars of conquest, so
that we could not acquire Mexico, and
intervention means, therefore, large
expenditure of money and life merely to
maintain our supremacy upon this con-
tinent.
President Wilson is III very much the
same situation which confronted Prssi-
dent Mckinley prior to the war with
Spain. Mr.. Mckinley was eminently a
man of peace, although he had served
with credit during the civil war. Neither
he nor the advisers who surrounded
him wanted a war with Spain. The
blowing up of the Maine settled the
question for him, SO that it still remains
an open question whether war could
have been averted if the explosion had
not occurred. At the same time, the
conditions in Cuba werc not half as bad
as they are in Mexico today. The
people who suffered from the reconcen-
trado policy of Weyler were not Ameri-
cans but Cubans. Spain maintained her
sovereignty over the island, despite
Gomez and his small band of rebels.
There was sentiment in this country,
however, that the United States should
interfere in order that the island might
enjoy tranquility and commerce thrive
under American supervision. Like Nc
Kinley, Wilson does not want war. At
the risk of being denounced as weak,
supine, and unpatriotic, he has waited
patiently in the hope that normal con-
ditions in Mexico would be restored. In
stead of this, affairs have gone from
bad 10 worse, leaving the President be-
tween the devil and the deep sea. To
intervene means war; to do nothing
means a dininution of respect for the
United States abroad and much criti-
cism at. home.
Meanwhile, the President waits for
public sentiment to develop. When he
intervenes he wants the country behind
him with practical universally. Then,
whatever happens, he can justify him
self. Congress is waiting with him.
The Democrats do not want to act con-