The Alaska daily empire., 1914-10-05


 ernment" must be discountenanced
 Therefore, it Is necessary to scruti nize each revolution by itself, and tc
 judge whether 1t be, or be not, nor ally justiflable.
 l, In the case of Mexico, judgment was easy. Francisco Madero had been chosen president practically by accli nation by a people weary of being exploited by the Cientificos who sur rounded Porfiro Diaz in his later years Madero proved incompetent. Presi dents sometimes do even in countries which consider themselves superior to Mexico They are not, therefore, with us, murdered by their generals.
 The coup Getat that overthrow Ma. dero in February, 1913, was in no way q revolution. 1t was q barracks plot, a conspiracy of few army officers, fl. nanced by Cientfioos living in exile and a few Spanish reactionaries. It was attended by circumstances of treachery so eXecrable, of yillany so fantastic, of cruelty so barbarous, that the story is one which the mind has difficulty as accepting as credible.
 The chief actor, Huerta, an ape-like Indian, aged, one-eyed, subsisting on brandy, when the moment of his tri. umph was fully come, rose from break fasting with the presidents brother, beckoned file of soldiers, arrested him, had him carried away to be shot to death, and his body thrown into a hole; went to the palace, embraced the president whose chief command CT he had become through protesta- tions of faithfulness to death, and sig nailed in guards to arrest him. By promises of safe conduct out of the country, the treacherous general se- cured the signatures of President Ma derO and Vice President Pino Suarez to deeds of resignation; hastily gath cred less than quorum of congress in chamber filled with soldiers and commanded by artillery; had himself acknowledged as president; carried MaderO and Pino Suarez out into the night and had them shot to death be- hind the prison.
 Perhaps this is enough to suggest that there could be no question of recognizing Huerta as the head of a lawful gOvernment-Once it had re. solved to scrutinize revolutions. But indeed it would surely have been i'm possible for tragic romance to have imagined a character so hideously vil- lalnous as NictOriano Huerta, or car eer so cOmpletly justifying the refus- al to recognize him. The conspiracy that began with the staying of 5000 citizens of the City of Mexico in 10 days and the betrayal and assassina- tiCn of president and vice president relatives and friends, went on until the conSpirators were killing and eX. fling each other, until the congress that had proclaimed Huerta had been by him dissolved and it's members thrown into prison, and, the constitu- ton formally abrogated, the tyrant re. signed as a confessed dictator over the oppressed, terroriZcd, and ruined people of the part of Mexico which civil war had not wrested from him. It was my duty to write a narrative of those events which I cannot bear to re-read d-or even to be reminded of, passing, as it does, from episode to episode of impossible perfidy, degen- crate malice, ingenuious depravity, cynical deviltry and savage cruelty.
 Others powers made no scruple of giving the assassin and uSurper i'm mediate recognition. Very well. the United States is not a follower of oth. 'r powers. It is, it has been from the beginning of it's history, the moral eader of the world. Our diplomatic history is like that of no other govern nent; it's successes have been due to he fact that other powers have been puzzled and undone by our moral sim )licity. Phariseeism is the worst of sins, besides being extremely bad aSte., but sometimes a thing must be said, even if we say it "as we should not" It is the mere fact that great powers have no Consciences-but the United States has a conscience. We Ire a simple people. unable to rid our selves of a prejudice against murder No doubt we are not fit to be regard 'd as practical men, living in q world )f unpleasant facts, but we have not earned to accept an accomplished fact wrought by an enemy of everything leCent in civilization: there is with n us something to which it is repun- gent to welcome Judas into the com- )any of honorable men for the sake ,f trade advantages which might ac- rue from the welcome. This is hy- )ocracy sentimentalism, Quixoticism, offensive moral superiority so the Bri- ish journals say. No it is not senti- nentalism; it is plain, sturdy morality 70 which, unfortunately, the foreign policies of too many other nations are 2 lg-zz-Zl zlll IT