New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-05-24
The Wilson Land Redistribution
Policy: Would 1t Work as Well
in Colorado as in Mexico!


in Mexico is going TO he applied in an extraordihar!
w.v IL we may take as authentic the naive ana
Startling opnons attributed TO the President Ill a"
interview with him published in THE SATURDAY
Evening Post"
In his communications TO Congress and his ofh-
,ial exchanges with the A h G mediators Mr.. VIII
son has been exceedingly restrained There Is
nothing on record to show that he REGARDS 'ne
issue between this country and the Huerta govern
ment as transcending the immediate dispute over
the Tamnico incident except the vague hope e1-
rressed in the note accepting the good ofhces OF
Argentina Brazil and Chill that mediation would
load 70 "a satisfactory and therefore permanent set
Element"
All that Mr. Wilson asked from Congress ana
obtained from it was an authorization TO use the
military forces of the United States to enforce hs
demand for amends for affronts and lndlgnitles
against the United States" We are of the OPINION
that he should have asked for larger grant OF
mower. II would have been entirely appropriate 10
request Congress to back him up in protecting the
lives and property of Americans threatened by con-
ditions of violence and anarchy in Mexico ii "ouu
have been equally appropriate TO ask an lndorse-
ment of his purpose to protect the lives and prop
ertv of other nationals. doing for them what the
United States in Difference 10 the implications OF
the Monroe Doctrine. would not like to have their
Governments do for them. But he made no such
requests
on the contrary. he sought to Confne intervention
Mexico to its lowest terms. If he had not maze
his war of service" speech at the Brooklyn navy
ward the public would never have suspected that
he had any inclination to depart from the nnoa-
mental conception of his original Mexican policy
that 1.-THE people of Mexico are entitled to settle
their domestic affairs in their own way, with inc
trifing exception that under no circumstances are
they TO tolerate being governed by General Huerta'
Now from the quiet White House comes this per
picking announcements
NV ideal is an orderly and righteous government;
but nv passion is for the submerged s. per cent OF
the people of that republic who arc now struggling
toward liberty.
1t is a curious thing that every demand for the
establishment Of order in Mexico takes into con
sdoration not order for the benefit of the people
of Mexico. the great mass of the population but
order for the benefit of the oldtime regime for the
aristocrats for the vested interests. for the men
who responsible for this very condition Of dis
order
They want order, the old order; but I say to you
that the old order is dead 1t is my part as | see
il, 10 aid in composing those differences far as
! may be able, that the new order, which will have
its foundation human liberty and human rights,
shall prevail.
"Of course" adds the President. lit would not do
for MS to insist upon croct procedure for the par
tition of the land Yet the inference from the in
tervew is plain. that instead of cnginG the "old
order policy Of letting the MeXicans adjust their
economic affairs to suit themselves the President
is prepared to shift TO a new order pro-
sramme whose basic feature is the wholesale trans
fer of property held by one set of MeXcanS
into the hands of another set
Nothing could be simpler more bencvoent-for
Mexico Yet why should Mr.. Wilson 50 restrain
his passion for redistribution of property ?
Why doesn't he advocate the thing in Col
orado, for instance. where he is maintaining Il
body of federal troops?
II would greatly encourage the Niagara Fails
mediators if the President should point the way
with little Serving mankind" demonstration in
the Colorado coal regions Why not issue ulti-
matum TO Governor Ammons to the effect that the
federal troops will he withdrawn only on condition
that the state Legislature exhibits little pas
sion" for the submerged" there and transfers the
stock in the Colorado mining companies from its
present holders to the near peon" mine workers?
A really courage warrior for mankind is never
afraid TO apply TO his countrymcn the remedies
which he recommends for neiehbOrS just across
the boundary line.