Mexico Missouri message., 1914-05-14
SCENE IN WASHINGTON WHEN
HuERTAs DEFIANCE CAME
TO Mr.. WILSON,.
SUSPENSE AT WHITE HOUSE
Arrival Of Charge o'shaushnessy's
Message In Code and Giving Out
the News That Electrified
the Country.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

Huerta OF Mexico to the demand or
President Wilson that he salute the
Stars and Stripes or stand the conse-
Quences. Would It be uninteresting
TO picture the scene during the hours
Woodrow Wilson had promised that
unless the flag had been saluted he
would go to the American congress in
person to ask for a vote of confidence
in the course that he intended to
take and OF authority to use the
armed forces of the government to up
hold the honor of the nation2
II is $3.50 o'clock on Sunday
night. In the lobby of the White
House executive offices is gathered
crowd of newspaper men. Across
Executive avenue brilliantly lighted
windows In the state. war and navy
departments indicate where the
latest news from Charge O'Shaugh'
messy is being translated from the
code. Word comes that the dispatch
was filed about p IN. in Mexico CITY,
and that 1t deals with an interview
between o'Shaughnessy and the Mex
lean secretary of foreign affairs.
1t is ten o'clock. The crowd in and
about the executive office has In
creased From across the street
comes Secretary of the Navy Daniels,
who enters the office of the presi-
dents private secretary In a moment
he reappears with Secretary Tumulty,
who is expected to announce the news,
as he had promised to do II It were
favorable. Favorable news will mean
that Huerta has promised to salute
and that war will be averted.
Too Serious TO Give Out.
But instead the two officials jump
into a waiting state department au-
tomobile, Secretary Daniels pausing
an instant to tell the correspondents
that the news is too serious to be
made public without consultation with
the secretary OF state.
There Is no doubt in the minds OF
the newspaper correspondents Of what
this means. The feeling OF suspense
under which all of them have lived
through the day gives place to one OF
suppressed excitement.
II is 1920 p. m. Through Pennsyl
vania avenue dashes a great touring
car driven by a chauffeur apparently
ignorant that such things as speed
laws exist. The machine swings into
the White House grounds, and with
its siren shrieking to clear the way,
draws up at the door Of the executive
| Offices.
From the automobile come Secre-
tary Of State Bryan. Secretary of the
Navy Daniels and Secretary to the
President Tumulty. They shoulder
their way through the expectant
crowd OF newspaper men and dis
appear into one of the rear Offices OF
the White House.
Later the correspondents are admit
ted into Secretary Tumulty's room
leaving in the lobby only the door
men, the White House police, a few
army and navy officers and the civ
ilian visitors, to whom the full priv
ileges Of newspaper men do not ex
tend.
Out Comes the Big News.
Those who have been left behind
do not have long to walt In a mo
ment through the corridor from the
rear room dashes a young man on
his way to q telephone booth. He
does not stop to communicate his It'd
ings, but as he unburdens himself oil
his news by means OF the telephone
to the office of his newspaper the by
ISLANDERS learn that there will be q
special meeting of the cabinet at ter
o'clock in the morning. and that al
three o'clock in the afternoon the
president will go before a Joint SEES
sion Of congress to ask for an expires
sion OF its confidence and for author
I ity TO do what seems to him best In
the impending crisis.
Everybody knows the premise upon
which the conclusion must be based
The messenger is soon followed by
others, all OF them in haste to speed
through the transmitters in the crowd
ed little telephone room to the wait
ing newspaper presses OF the ma
ton the news that the end OF diplo
macy has been reached and that in all
human probability the dreaded wal
with Mexico is about to become a
realty.
IL is midnight Through the streets
of the Capital city shrills the cry OF
Extra" Extra" Extra" "All
the latest war news!" and in magma
ton one can hear It echoed from plain
and mountain and from the coasts OF
our country.
Army Well Prepared.
It has been evident for some years
that the war department Of the United
States was determined If a conflict
we're TO come with any other country
there would be no duplication OF the
state OF unpreparedness in which the
service was found at the outbreak Of
the Spanish war, and which led tC
rows between officers OF high rank and
to scandals which gave "embalmeC