Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-07-23
MAJOR sP|LMAN
TELLS OF MEXICO
OTTUMWAN SPENT 8 MONTHS
ON FARM NEAR BROWNS
WILLIE, TEXAS.
ON MEXICAN BORDER
City Is Situated on Rio Grande Just
Across From Mantamoras- Says
Community Is Very Peaceful
and UnWarIike.

; Major T. p Spilman who recently
returned from Brownsville, Texas, on
/ the Mexican border, has been in close
touch with the Mexican situation for
the past eight months. In an inter
view with The Courier he expressed
some interesting views on the subject,
some of which differ in many respects
! from those held by residents of this
section. ..
Brownsville, where the major has
land holdings, is on the lower point of
F., the panhandle state-the most south
ern city in Texas-and is situated d.
rectly across the Rio Grande river
from Matamoras, Mexico. The popula-
ton of the place is made up of both
Americans and Mexicans, some of the
latter being American born and estab-
lished in business on the American
side.
Major Spilman says that the COM
munity is very peaceful and quiet, the
only thing which might suggest war
being the presence of a few stations
of troops in the vicinity of the city.
Some of the reports of trouble in that
locality, he says, are highly exagger-
ated. He told of reading in San
Antonio paper a dispatch which is
supposed to have originated near
Brownsville, in which it was stated
that about sixty constitutional soldiers
swan the Rio Grande with their arms,
invaded Brownsville and shot up the
town. Il was present at the time"
said Mr. Spilman, land the invasion
was actually perpetrated by six con-
stitutionalists who rowed across the
river in skiff, leaving their arms on
the Mexican side, and paid friendly
visit to their friends in the city"
Majority For Carranza.
"The majority of both the Mexicans
and Americans in that vicinity are in
favor of Carranza," he continued, 'but
all seem to be opposed to Intervention
on the part of the United States. 1t
is my opinion that if our country
should intervene to any great extent,
both factions would unite in the op-
position of such action. talked with
a Huerta man from the south who ex-
pressed the belief that all the trouble
originated thirty years back under the
Diaz regime. when public education
was established He thought that the
Mexicans had received just enough
with the existing conditions, but not
enough to render them capable of sup
plying a satisfactory remedy"
Major Spilman stated that contrary
to the belief Of many persons in the
north, the native Mexicans are very
conscientious and honest in all their
dealings. 1--WE left our vegetables ly-
ing along the fence all winter" said
Mr.. Spilman, "and although there were
native workmen at work on the other
side of the fence on another mans
property they did not touch that which
did not belong to them. If we threw
potatoes or other vegetables over to
them they thanked us very graciously,
but otherwise they subsisted on their
corn cakes and water. We never
missed any tools or farm implements,
an when 1 left we had just as many
shovels. wrenches, etc, as when went
there. The workmen OCCASIONALLY leave
their tools in the field, but they can
always go back and find them un-
touched