The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-08
PROF. MONsEN, EXPLORER, 49 YEARS OLD TO-DAY.
 IS AUTHORITY ON MEXICO

Few American scientific men are so well equipped to discuss Mexico and M Maxicans as Prof. Frederick Imman Monsen. explorer, ethnoIogist and archaeologist, who has spent many years among the Indians and peons of the southern republic. Prof Monsen was born in Bergen Norway, forty
 nine years ago to-day, July 8, 1865. In his youth he studied art, but the blood of adventurous NoTfhnaen inclined him
 to other pursuits. From his arrival in America at the age of fifteen he was interested in the Indians, and for more than a. quarter of 8. century he has been engaged in the study of the abo-
 rieines in California, Canada, New Mexico. Arizona and Mexico. He
 has explored Salton Sea, Lower Cali
 fornia, Death Valley and other Cali
 fornia deserts and many other wild sections of the North American con tfnent.
 Prof. Monsen spent several months I at Torreon with the forces of Villa,
 and on, his return to civilization he | was loud in his praises of the rebel warrior. His acQuaintance with Pan
 cho Villa began some eight years ago, when the Constitutionalist military
 Header was a modern Robin Hood. l stealing from the rich and distributing
 his loot among the poor and the down | trodden. Villa. served as guide to Prof Monsen several years ago.. when | the rWegian-American scientist was l engaged in excavations in the Sierra
 Madras mountains Of Villas person
 al appearance Prof. Monsen has said:
 ..InS all my experience have never
 seeen such remarkable eyes in>the face. of any other man. have always ! been in doubt as to whether he has
 any black blood or not He is cer- l tainly very largely of Indian blood, and that accounts for his friendly at ktftude for the United States. as con- I trasted with the animosity Of Carrau- ga, who, being of Casdlian extraction. | holds for Americans some of that re-
 sentiment felt generally by all Span fish Mexicans. Villa is unniIitary in appearance, even slouchy, but he is I the embo odiment of exerything that is soIdierly. All of his men idohze their I chieftain, and around their camphres f in his honor
 T Prof. Monsen asserted that there I was no footing at Torreon, and added | that it was not until Villa became the head of the rebel army that Northern l Mexico received any protection what ever. Villa, according to Prof. gA1on- Sen, does not resent the charge that ] he was a bandit before he became a | general, but on the contrary rather | gIories in the role of a Robin. Hood. | Like many other observers, Prof. II Monsen declared that turbulent Med- l co will never become peaceful Mexico until the land question has been set l tied to the satisfaction of the masses 1 of the people. That land problem I the explorer concludes, ''is an intetrnal I one that will have to be fought out in -l formally" :"
 ssFtor ages'' said the eminent inves- II tfgator, ssthe Indians of Mexico had oc- I cupfed their lands, but they held no II titles from the state and they were l forced to move out. If they refused, | they were slaughtered by troops, who l murdered men, women and children | Then they became the serfs of the II great landlords We must remember that out Of a population OF Is, ,000, 900 Fi there are 12, 900, 900 Indians, and that l the majority of them are full-blooded. H Upon his return from Mexico, lit tie over a month ago, Prof. Monsen expressed the opinion that the MeH- 1 can problem could not be solved by I American intervention, and that the l United States should continue the pol icy of watchful waiting while permit | ting Mexicans to work out their own salvation.